An Artificer in a world of ninjas
by Pabloski33
Summary: What would happen if Naruto learned the value of creathing his own stuff? Watch as our hero faces the ninja world with another set of skills and a mindset forged by the "lessons" he got from his early years.
1. Chapter 1

_Hello everyone! It has been a while since I tried a new story but believe me I've tried writing at least five new ones but none of them satisfied me and I just dropped them after trying a couple of unsatisfying chapters._

 _As usual I tend to make my stories centered on the main character who in this case is Naruto but this time I'm taking a different approach, our blond hero has another set of abilities that make him skilled but not really that powerful._

 _I've written two more chapters by the moment I'm publishing this so if there are comments I'll post them shortly, as I've already said in other stories I don't like to feel as if I was talking to myself._

 _Also remember English is not my born language and I'm already doing my best, if you have some constructive criticism I'm willing to read it and try to apply it but you've been warned my English is probably not very good._

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 **Chapter 1 – A curious child**

It was a normal day in the leaf village, the sun warmed the streets and everyone seemed to be minding their own business, but there was a single individual to whom normal was far from perfect, that person was none other than Naruto Uzumaki, the village's Jinchuuriki, most people treated him with scorn and indifference so a couple years ago he had decided to ignore them, living in solitude was better than living in fear and pain.

Obviously not everything was as bad as it sounded, he had a small apartment but it was all for himself, the kind old man who ruled the village visited him from time to time giving some money and food to fulfill his needs, the owners of a ramen stand were pretty nice to him and as many people were just waiting for a chance to shout at him, he had to learn to be sneaky and stealthy if he wanted to get something, he didn't stole things per se…but he used to take things the people discarded…when they weren't looking.

You could ask, why a six years old child would take things he found on the streets, well that was after he learnt the value of building things he wanted…

Everything started when he was at the orphanage, he saw that all the other kids had multiple toys but he always seemed to arrive too late because the woman giving them away always told him she had no toy left for him, years later when he was living on his own, he saw other kids playing with plush toys, with carriages and dolls yet he had none…he tried saving some of the money the old man gave him but the store owners usually told him he didn't have enough for the toys he wanted or the other times they just forbid him from entering their stores.

One day he saw some discarded pieces of wood in a corner, he saw some other people putting garbage next to it so he assumed it was a place where people placed discarded things they didn't need any more and tried to take the wood, but a man walking close shouted him accusing him of stealing things that weren't his, Naruto just panicked and ran away but later that night he returned and this time there was absolutely no one around so he just took all the wood he saw, along with a couple of dented knives and some carton boxes he used to store his loot.

He worked during all night until he could make something square with the wood and some rounded pieces of carton, then he used the glue and assembled something that resembled a very rough chariot but it was the product of his own effort which made him feel very accomplished before taking some very deserved sleep.

The other kids and some of the parents were surprised when they saw little Naruto playing with something that obviously hand-made but made him very happy, he played with the same chariot for a complete week at the park without paying any mind to the other children, instead of looking at them every ten minutes as he usually did trying to find a way to approach them without the interference of their parents.

Another day when he wasn't seen by the families that frequented that playing ground the kids wondered where he was until he arrived two days later with a new chariot, it was more detailed and he must have picked some paint because both were painted, one was red and yellow with the colors of the fire nation while the other was in different shades of blue, he stood there playing with his toys for almost two weeks until the first incident happened.

The other kids usually were aware of Naruto's presence but their parents often told them to not mix with him or interact with the boy, not matter how many times the more friendly asked their parents why he was all alone, but unfortunately there were some kids a lot less friendly and one of them decided Naruto was probably a jerk because instead of paying attention to them he spent all his time playing with ugly and cheap things so he decided to intervene, he started running in random directions until he finally ran towards Naruto, the blond boy was not aware of his surroundings until he felt movement on his field of vision and then a moving figure came close to him, stepping on one of his chariots and throwing the other to the side before crashing with him "Don't get in the way you brat!" shouted the bully when trying to regain his foot.

All the people around stopped what they were doing to look in Naruto's direction, all the adults in the surroundings were aware of what happened because the bully's intentions were very clear, in that moment the blond boy who was more than a year younger that the other boy moved tackling the bully to the ground holding his neck with his right hand, he was feeling a lot of anger because he had spent a lot of time an effort to build his toys, for a moment he thought in hurting him but then he returned to his rational state and just threw some sand at his eyes before gather his toys or what remained of them and went walking slowly to his home.

Some weeks ago Naruto had learnt the value of your own work, but today he gained other two important lessons:

 _ **There were some people who were mean no matter if you did nothing to them.**_

 _ **His anger was dangerous so he needed to avoid that feeling if he didn't want to hurt anyone**_.

From that day on Naruto never returned to the park, in the next few days he would gather more materials to create a ladder to reach the roof of his building and spend all the afternoons playing there.

As it was expected, the Hokage found about this development and grew worried when three days later Naruto hadn't returned to the playground so he went to visit the resident Jinchuuriki, he knocked the door for a while until Naruto heard the noise and shouted from the roof, the Hokage just jumped and gave him some company, he asked about the incident where the other boy destroyed his toy but Naruto just answered he didn't want to deal with that mean boy so he preferred to stay home away from mean people. The Hokage knew isolation was not a natural response for a six years old child but Naruto was anything but normal and from what he heard the blond was aware of his initial reaction and desisted from his initial intention to choose a harmless one, the Uzumaki did not spoke about the incident or his feelings about it, instead he spent a long time explaining about the things he had done with his own hands and the process undergone each of them.

Sarutobi realized Naruto had found something he was good at, something he could put an effort and be rewarded for that so he decided he would give the boy the tools to excel at this hobby he had found. At the end of that day the Hokage left Naruto's department with mixed feelings on one hand he was worried for his isolation but on the other hand he was glad the boy had found something that made him happy so he decided to support him.

During the next morning Naruto heard someone knock on his door again, which was very unusual, so he went to open this time and found a masked ninja with two large boxes "The Hokage send these things for you, and said he hoped for you to be happy with the path you decided to take" informed the ANBU ninja before giving him the two packages.

Naruto was happy and curious with this gesture so he opened the first box and saw many pieces of wood in different shapes, some saws, nails and different building tools, this was a great gift because it would improve the quality of all the things the blond made from this day on, then he went to the other box and saw the inside…to find many books, at first he thought books were boring but when he saw their covers "How to build toys" "How to build furniture" "How to create your own garden" all the books were about creation of useful things so the boy decided he would give them a chance because it could allow him to have some nicer things.

…..

..

….

Time passed flowing around everyone and now we find an eight years old Naruto entering the ninja academy, it would be four years of studying, learning and getting the skills to survive in the harsh world they lived in, the blond was used to be on his own so he arrived into the class, got into the first row to be able of paying attention and not be disturbed by other people, within half an hour the classroom was filled with many kids he remembered vaguely from his days at the playground, fortunately there was no trace of the bully that antagonized him.

The other kids, being some of the clan heirs, also remembered the blond boy that always played by himself at the park, they had long forgotten the warning their parents gave them about him so instead of rejection now there was only curiosity towards the kid.

Naruto carried his things in a handmade backpack composed of wood and leather, he also had a wood box to store his lunch and his pencils, he listened carefully to what the teacher was saying and the moment he didn't understood something he raised his hand to ask but the teacher just looked at him with disdain and ignored him, the Uzumaki just looked at his eyes and lowered his hand, he already knew some people was just mean and there was no use in wasting your time with them, he would try to find the answers he needed from books or from the old man Hokage who had said many times before entering the academy his door was open in case he needed help.

Days passed without anything out of the ordinary, the blond went to the academy every day, listened a man talk the whole morning, ate his lunch in a roof alone and then practiced whatever they had prepared for the afternoon, that was until the teacher explained the many uses of chakra and one of them was to make more resistant tools and sharper weapon edges.

The next day Naruto was absent from the academy, the teacher was surprised when the blond did not report because it was his first day of absence but he thanked to the gods for not having to endure his presence at the front of his class that day, the weird thing came the next day when he missed the class again and the same happened the next day.

At the end of the first month the chunin teacher presented the first-year students' grades to the Hokage who liked to see how the new youngsters were doing in case someone seemed to be unfit to become a ninja or needed some special help "Why Naruto's space is blank?" questioned the village leader fearing some foul play against his protegee.

"I had forgotten to inform you Lord Hokage, but the brat had skipped school for the last eight days" replied the chunin looking at the ground, Sarutobi looked at him but the man was hiding his face in shame, there were specific rules that said if a student missed three days or more without any notification he had to inform the Hokage or his assistant to find what was happening with the student, especially during the first year when they were exploring their areas of interest.

"I'll only let his one pass but if you fail to be fair with Naruto once more, you'll be doing D-rank missions until he becomes a genin" warned the Hokage, before motioning one of his bodyguards "Have a tracking team at the ready in case it's necessary" said before departing from his office, he needed to check on Naruto to at least see he was doing okay.

The old man moved at high speeds to reach Naruto's building, he jumped to the last floor and gave an extra high jump to see if he was on the roof but he wasn't there so he opted to knock the door and after waiting a couple of minutes he heard some movement on the inside, then after the sound of steps a very sleepy Naruto opened the door "Hi old man…what are you doing here?" asked the blond

Hiruzen asked if he could pass because he wanted to talk with the boy and he invited him inside "Naruto, your teacher says you had missed many days at the academy, can you tell me the reason for that?" questioned the Hokage this time.

Naruto looked at the ground for a moment and then took a long sigh "You got me…I skipped classes because the teacher told us about chakra on one of his lectures and I had to try it, you know if it could make tools more resistant and edges sharper it could help me build more complex things so that night I tried the exercise" and he took a book on his table explaining the basics of chakra in terms of physical and spiritual energies and how to unlock that for the first time, at this point Sarutobi was very interested because it seemed Naruto had been able to awaken his chakra just with the book's instructions which meant he was very skilled or had tons of chakra, but considering who his parents were it could be both "When I unlocked my chakra I experienced an amazing feeling, my body felt stronger so I used some saws and the wood felt like butter, I could even cut pieces of metal so I was doing some adjustments to my clothes" explained the blond before going to his room and come back with a new outfit. The Hokage had seen him wear those orange clothes but supposed he just wanted to draw attention, then the Uzumaki explained those were the only one he could buy so he made some dye from plants following the gardening book instructions and dyed them into a black outfit with baggy pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt, then he showed the old man some metal guard he was finishing with the leaf symbol for his shoulders and gloves "I had to practice really hard to get the leaf symbol right on those but the result was worth it" said an accomplished Naruto, the Hokage had expected many things but not this so he was kind of disarmed there, he decided to just give the boy a hug.

"I'm quite proud of you my boy, your skills had improved a lot" stated the village leader watching his progress "having said that, please try to don't miss your classes or you could miss an important piece of knowledge for your future or even your building skills, you can tell your teacher I allowed you to have a free afternoon per week but that's all I can give you without stunting your growth" concluded the Hokage getting a smile and a nod from the blond.

"Deal" replied Naruto happy with all that development.

The next day Naruto would return to the academy, when the teacher was checking who was present and who didn't he looked around to see a girl behind his seat "Pssst hey, could you tell me what topics I missed?" asked the blond trying to put a smile on his face.

To his bad luck, poor shy Hinata couldn't answer him, she just got red and started babbling some nonsense and this time Naruto was who misjudged someone.

"Oh…never mind, excuse me for disturbing you" apologized Naruto with a new scowl, he saw people talk to each other all the time but most of times he tried it the people wasn't helpful at all. In the end, he thought asking his teacher was no use and the same applied to ask one of his classmates so he just payed extra attention to what the teacher said.

"Well, today I'll not give you any lectures, instead you'll try to unlock your chakra again, those who can do this already should do it again to exercise your ability to draw your chakra while the rest has to reach your inner core and bring your power to the surface" explained the scarred ninja "Naruto, you have missed the previous days but we're trying to unlock everyone's chakra-" Iruka was going to explain the process when the blond interrupted him.

"I can already do that" said Naruto taking a breath and channeling all the chakra he could grab from his inside, the result surprised Iruka and some of the chakra sensitive kids like Shino, Hinata or Akamaru, Naruto's chakra was more potent than Iruka's and those four individuals picked this fact.

"Okay…well done…you should try and practice how quick your chakra answer your call" said a very confused and surprised Iruka, at first he expected the blond to fail miserably for being absent for so long but it seemed he had a ton of chakra, for a moment he considered the idea of accusing him of using the Kyubi's chakra but his presence felt very natural just like his but more potent, there was nothing of the raw malice and killing intent of the Kyubi, he had felt those on the dreadful night of its release so those were feelings he remembered clearly.

Naruto had been using his chakra and channeling it through his tools so without even being aware of it, he was training his chakra control from the very beginning, during the afternoon they went to the back yard and he saw some discarded shuriken in the distance so he made a mental note to not forget about them.

During that night the blond modified his usual route and using a malfunctioning lighter he picked from the streets months ago and fixed he scanned through all the training courses the academy had taking all the tools he found into his pack, in the end he found nine shuriken and three kunai plus a medium amount of ninja wire, the stayed awake very late in the night sharpening the weapons and trying to learn how to use the wire, he overslept but decided he would still go to the academy and arrived after the first break, Iruka looked at him but said nothing and resumed his speech.

With a few days Naruto realized there were little things a chakra reinforced kunai couldn't cut or slice so he was able to make a qualitative jump in his manufacturer skills and for the first time he was able to create a working gear, he had disassembled some watches in the past out of curiosity so he knew how they worked. The first thing he made was a real-size chariot with pedals so he could fit inside and move around the village, his first problem was the direction, his first run was incredible fun until he crashed with a wall, fortunately he wasn't too fast and the chariot didn't suffered almost any damage, the next thing he did was to add a direction system to turn around and rectify his path, this time his fun met no limits, for a whole month Naruto would spend one or two hours moving around the village in his chariot, at first the people thought it was from a rich person but within the days they figured out who was inside and decided to ignore it, the blond was very careful to not hit any person on the streets and only raised his speed in open and empty places.

The third Hokage saw Naruto playing around the village in the chariot but as he didn't do any damage he denied any action taken against him, the blond was participating in the academy and how he used his free time was up to him. Some bold people even demanded for the chariot to be taken from him as he should´ve probably steal it but the Hokage warned that people with imprison them for breaking the law the next time they came up to him with something as unreasonable as that.

Naruto was pretty happy, he was as lonely as the first day but now he spent most of his time working on something so he didn't have much time to reflect on his loneliness, after the chariot he did a canon he filled with anything he found, first he used some scrap metal he picked up from the market district and they were fired through compressed air, but after that he worked on the cylinder to make exclusively for firing kunai, he put a kunai inside pulled a small chain and the weapon was thrown at very high speed, higher than he could muster at his early eight years of life so that was the first weapon the created with his own two hands, so far he felt pretty accomplished.

The other kids in the academy didn't make much of an effort in getting to know Naruto, for most of them he was just the lonely blond boy who always brought things to the school, sometimes were new clothes (with different colors or metal ornaments), other times were action figures or even mysterious boxes, no one knew where he got all that from because it was a very known fact the he was an orphan but not even one kid suspected he could be able to make all that by himself.

The ninja academy, the blond realized, was very simple because all what you needed to do was learning some specific historical events and then came the practical portion where you needed chakra to perform the exercises and a mild physical condition to pass, the blond was about average in all of that but the truth was the fact he could do really well in test if he really tried studying but he usually spent most of his time building things, after the real-size chariot Naruto realized he had built his first machine and with the kunai launcher he could say he had successfully built a weapon, despite how simple it was.

Even for an eight years old kid, it was obvious chakra had an incredible variety of uses so he spent many weeks trying to read and find information about atypical uses of chakra, the first thing he found was ninjutsu but he had already seen that, then came physical enhancing and he also knew that and its variant the ability to enhance objects, but searching deeper he found kenjutsu, the use of chakra in the weapons wielding styles, genjutsu or the use of chakra based illusions but then he found about sealing, puppeteering, tracking, summoning, healing among other wonderful things so he was shocked with how versatile it was.

The blond tried finding on his own means information about all those uses but the things he could get his hands on had very limited information so he decided he would go to the Hokage, who was called the professor so he should probably know something about those fields of specialization. Hiruzen was very surprised to see Naruto in a time he should be at the academy but he was following his grades and he was very comfortably in the middle of his class, the old man suspected that position was only due to the lack of focus but he supposed developing other abilities was part of his growth too. "What a pleasant surprise Naruto…although you should not be skipping classes" greeted Sarutobi getting a caught look from the blond who had the decency to look ashamed "What brings you here my boy?" questioned this time the Hokage

"Well, after doing many things with the tools you gave me after using some chakra I was wondering about all the things you could do with this power and wanted to find more about different abilities that used chakra" explained Naruto making the Hokage gladly surprised, because the Uzumaki wanted to improve himself but the pace the academy kept was too slow and general for his wandering mind.

For a moment, he thought about giving him more books or something but in the end, he decided as this was the first time the blond came to him for guidance he would give him some time "I think it'll be better if I show you about some of the things I've learnt over the years" said the Hokage signaling some of his ANBU to prepare his personal training ground.

He motioned Naruto to walk alongside him while talking about the time when he was able to cast almost all the ninja techniques people from the village knew with the exception of those clan-specific and the blood limits, then came the natural question about blood limits and the old man proceeded to explain about those who were born with some special traits as the members of the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, the Uzumaki complained a little but then Sarutobi told Naruto neither the fourth Hokage or him had any blood limit and they were still capable of becoming the top ninjas of their generation and that did the trick, the boy was deep in thinking about how awesome a ninja had to be in order to be elected Hokage and how the old man and the fourth had developed their skills on their own.

"Pay attention Naruto, I'll start showing you the three basic ninja styles" said the Hokage walking some meters away from the blond "this is ninjutsu, the most used style…Fire Release: Great Fireball" shouted before exhaling an incredible large and hot ball of fire, it was capable of completely destroy a training dummy very similar to the located at the academy, there was no need to say the blond was incredible impressed "Then comes taijutsu or the art of physical hand to hand combat, there are some special techniques but in essence it consists in enhancing your body with chakra" explained Hiruzen before using his left foot to stomp the ground, he did a loud sound and nothing happened but then he exchanged a look with the boy and channeled chakra on his right foot then he stomped the ground with it and destroyed a portion of the ground he hit creating a small tremor "That is the difference chakra can make" added to prove his point, at this point Naruto was speechless, he knew about ninjutsu and taijutsu but watching the real deal was another thing "Next comes genjutsu or the art of illusion, this can deceive people and allow for advantages in combat but some very skilled people is able to hurt their opponents with them" informed the Hokage before doing hand seals and trapping Naruto in an illusion lightbringer was called and made Naruto see nothing but light from all directions, he was very disoriented and after calling the Hokage for a few times he dispelled the technique.

Doing things this way allowed Naruto to see what could a good ninja do with any of the styles the Hokage would show him.

"After the main three come other useful but not so popular fields of specialization, one of my students is the most renowned medical ninja in the word for her ability to heal people with chakra" introduced the old man before taking a shuriken and making a cut on his hand, but then he channeled green chakra on the other and closed the wound leaving a very thin scar "But as you see my skills in that particular field are not so great" added referring to the scar, Naruto apologized for making him wound himself but the Hokage said it was nothing and kept on with his demonstration "Next is also one of the field another of my students excels at, it's sealing and despite being very difficult is also a very rewarding field" explained the Hokage before taking a scroll, drawing something on it with a brush and then place the same shuriken he used to cut his hand on the center of the drawing "seal" said the old man doing a single hand seal and the shuriken disappeared, Naruto was confused but the Hokage gave him the scroll and told him to channel some chakra into the drawing, the blond did so and was speechless when the shuriken was visible again "Along with ninjutsu, sealing is one of the most versatile uses of chakra because with enough skills and experience the user can do almost anything from storing items, creating barriers or complex mechanisms" added the village leader providing further information on the topic "Now comes another field one of my students is famous for" said with a sad face this time "summoning technique!" and bit his thumb before a large sealing array was visible on the ground and a human sized monkey appeared next to him "excuse me for summoning you Tenka but I was showing young Naruto about summoning" excused himself the Hokage who was very respectful with his companions.

"There is no need to excuse Hiruzen, teaching the new generation is a duty all of us should fulfill" replied the monkey surprising Naruto with its ability to speak and think like that "Young ninja, summoning is a ritual you do after finding a clan of animals willing to lend their strength to you, it's based on respect, trust and mutual cooperation, please never forget those principles" intervened the summon before saying goodbye to Sarutobi and Naruto and returning to his home.

Little Naruto believed it would be amazing to have an entire clan of partners and friends, being so lonely he valued company and support very highly.

Then Sarutobi grabbed a bo staff placed on the training ground "despite being mainly used for the swords techniques", kenjutsu is using chakra in combination with a weapon and then he did a forward thrust with the bo and it extended almost ten meters "I prefer a blunt weapon as the bo staff because of the ability to create a range where no enemy can enter without being pummeled" explained this time the Hokage "I can't really show you a tracking technique as those are not that visible but they allow you to find some people or objects either by scent, sight or chakra signature among other means".

Naruto was relieving all the things the village's leader had shown him that day when the old man asked about anything else so he tried to remember "I also read about puppetry and kinjutsus" replied the boy.

"Well…puppetry is an art from the sand village where they create strings with their chakra to control puppets and other weapons around the battlefield, I cannot perform that but I've known very powerful ninjas from that village, one of the advantages I think it was is the ability to control or manipulate things without having them in your hands…" explained the Hokage moving his hands as if he was resembling a puppeteer making a kunai move in the air following the trajectory he wanted, then he took a firm position with a serious face "As for kinjutsus they are special techniques forbidden for most ninjas because either they are too risky for the user or break some kind of law being too atrocious" said this time with a menacing tone "I'll only show you one…it's called shadow clone technique, it creates physical copies of its caster but requires an incredible amount of chakra, so much that a person without high chakra reserves could die creating just a single one" proceeded to tell the details before doing the handseal.

"Shadow cloning technique!" shouted Hiruzen before creating two copies of himself

One of the copies patted Naruto's head while the other picked a leaf from the ground to prove their tangibility, the blond thought this jutsu was very useful to do many things at the same time but decided he would try to be older before asking the Hokage to taught him it.

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 _I hope you liked it, please leave some comments with your thoughts_

 _PS: I have no idea how to work with a beta, if someone could give me some pointers that could help improve the quality of the story_


	2. Chapter 2

Hello everyone! I wanted to hear your opinions but only one person posted a review…although many people followed and favorited the story so I believe that's something

In this chapter I'm trying to cover Naruto's growth in an effort for you to understand his motivations, I hope it doesn't feels like I'm rushing things but I don't like much the "academy" stage of the story as it's too uneventful.

Bye, see you next time

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 **Chapter 2 – New tools**

It had been two months since the beginning of the second year at the academy, Naruto had passed the first year between the middle and the high scored students, when he paid attention he had a good performance but that usually happened at the last possible time, ignoring and even missing some of the less relevant classes, in his opinion.

His ability to create tools, machines and weapons had also increased, his original chariot hat been destroyed one afternoon when he was playing ninja wars and tried to use it as a siege weapon tackling a tree, later he found Konoha's trees were more resistant than most normal trees, some people believed it was due to the residual chakra of the first Hokage, while others just thought it was because of the chakra saturated environment they grew in but in the end his first hand-made machine was broken so he spent some time searching information about different metals and their properties, he found there were different metals and their properties depended on the minerals they were composed so the next step was researching in forging.

A critical part of forging was providing the fire so he had been training to master the fire elemental chakra, he found some theory and then the first two exercises, the first one was to transform his normal chakra into fire and the task was to ignite a leaf in fire, it took him three months but finally he was able to burn the stupid leaf, then came control, so he had to set a log on fire and then control that fire with his chakra for an hour without burning the log completely, that had been difficult for the blond but after four months of work he was able to do it, soon he discovered the time was not a factor but the control, he had to supply chakra to keep the fire alive but not too much or the whole thing would burn, from what the Hokage had said most kids his age would even struggle to gather chakra in his body so it was very rare for a nine years old kid to be mastering the fire element but he informed him some talented members of the Uchiha clan achieved a similar result around that age and that made him feel very pleased with himself.

After finishing those exercises, the Hokage awarded Naruto with his first ninja technique, the great fireball, the signature technique of the Uchiha clan but also a classic in fire type ninjas' repertoire ' _It's kind of ironic for a person close to the Senju clan's lineage to have the Uchiha's signature jutsu as his first one but Hashirama sensei always said there were more similarities between their clans than most people believed_ ' thought the old man with a smile after watching Naruto succeeding in the Great Fireball Technique on his first try "Congratulations Naruto, you are ready to make your own forge".

When the Hokage found most people refused to sell Naruto he got livid but the blond told him he didn't mind anymore, for a while he was upset but now he understood that's just how some people are so they reached an agreement, Naruto would provide some discarded weapons, scrap metal and useful things he found on his raids and the old man would sell them and give the money to Naruto, the blond had been doing this for almost a year plus he also had the old Hokage to sell his apartment which the landlord bought to have his complex demon-free and all of this was to buy a house, it was far from the main village's buildings but it was two times larger and had a good backyard for the blond to use as both a workshop and a storage deposit.

He hadn't discussed it with the Hokage but after getting the fire elemental mastery he wanted to train in sealing and puppeteering, when asked at the academy what were his goals in life he was left speechless, some years ago he would have seek the validation and approbation of other people, but now he only wanted to have a good time and build interesting things so he said he didn't a goal yet, he thought about that for many weeks until he realized the path of the ninja was just another tool at his disposal, he didn't feel strongly identified with Konoha's colors or with achieving great strength, that was also another means to an end…what he liked was to design cool things and make them reality so after a period of introspection he decided…

"I'll be a famous inventor and people from all the world would know about my creations!" declared the Uzumaki in front of his mirror

From the things Sarutobi showed him a year ago, sealing was very useful because it could allow him to keep things hidden on his machines, like weapons or ammo and puppeteering could allow him to control many tools at the same time or even activate some mechanism from a distance. Plus, if a man so awesome as the Hokage told him he didn't know about puppeteering, he would be very recognized if he was able to master an art even the village's leader didn't.

At the end of the first year Naruto discovered his chakra capacity was high, probably higher than his teachers…combined…and with every time he trained in control and exhausted his power, it grew even further, some books said your total amount grow with you until your late twenties but the main core would be reached around fifteen so if he trained hard, he could be really a powerhouse, he now had a very greedy project but if it worked the results would be amazing.

With that in mind Naruto created his own forge, he read a lot in books and thanks to his mastery over fire nature chakra, he was able to extinguish any fire that went out of control, he knew buying the equipment would probably be easier and cheaper if the Hokage helped him but doing things with his own two hands made him feel successful at something, so after three weeks he had his first operational forge working. Now he would need some minerals to create metals and the mountain terrain at the back of the Hokage mountain was the perfect place but it was a journey that required at least a day and that meant missing a day at the academy. The Hokage wasn't much happy with that but he acknowledged Naruto didn't need the academy very much, he already had some of the skills they developed there and the rest weren't really that necessary for the path's chosen by the blond so he allowed only if he was only missing a day each week.

Some of the other kids were starting to wonder why Naruto would be absent a day every week, some even tried to ask their parents to be excused from the academy that day but none of them had any luck. Out of the group most of them dismissed the blond as a fool who hardly payed any attention but there were some children like Sasuke Uchiha, Shikamaru Nara and Shino Aburame who could tell there was something else with the blond, he didn't pay attention in class because he didn't understand, he did it because it didn't interest him but the things he was always working on or reading proved he had a very gifted mind for his young nine years.

A couple of months later Sarutobi found himself doing some paperwork when he saw two figures kneel in front of him, they seemed to bring news but they must not be urgent or they would have already spoken "rise" ordered the Hokage watching with interest.

"Sir, we think you should watch the village…there is some commotion because of Uzumaki-san's…most recent creation" informed the masked ninja devoid of any ill intentions towards Naruto but unsure on how to address what was happening outside.

The Hokage would not admit it but he was curious about what could this be about and happy to have an excuse to leave his paperwork "thanks for your report" replied the Hokage before donning his hat and going to the balcony on his office.

The commotion was caused because Naruto was flying in the middle of the village, how could a nine years old child fly you ask? Well he was on a square box lifted by a metallic sphere, he saw some fire at the base of the sphere so he supposed Naruto was making it float with his fire chakra, it was the first time in his life he saw something like that and he had to concede it to the blond, in that moment the Hokage was completely convinced the Uzumaki was not meant to the academy, he needed space and resources to create things that could change everybody's lives, he saw that flying thing and saw a vehicle capable of carrying people between long distances or watch some very wide areas from a safe distance.

Naruto had a smirk larger than his face, he was finally showing to the whole village his flying ship, it was actually the third version because the first one had a cloth-made balloon to make the whole thing lighter but the fire quickly ignited it, then came the second one which was very similar but lacked the igniter he placed in the final version, so he needed to hold a constant stream of fire from his own ninjutsu to keep it in the air while this actual version used a controlled lighter that fed on his chakra so as long as he touched the device, and channeled chakra on his hand, he could keep his ship on the air and regulate the altitude. The Uzumaki was incredibly proud of the reactions his invention was getting because all the civilian on his path were looking at him with awe while the ninjas did with wonder and curiosity, from what the blond knew there was no other machine like this so it was the first showing of his skill as an inventor.

He saw the old man standing on the Hokage tower, the look on his face was very warm, the man he considered his grandfather was happy for him so that filled his hearth, he tried going in his direction but he had no way of controlling the direction it took just the altitude so he just stood there watching him and doing some motions with his hands attempting to explain this to the Hokage who just smiled.

"I want two teams scouting around to ensure no one tries anything against Naruto and another one to fetch him from the academy tomorrow at first hour" stated the Hokage to his personal guard who just nodded and disappeared to make his orders effective immediately.

….

..

After five hours of flying around the village, Naruto was close to his home so he used a hook to anchor himself to the ground, his first real show was a complete success and he wanted to make this the first of many displays of his talent.

That night he slept peacefully with a smile on his face, woke up, took a shower, had some milk for breakfast and arrived at the academy with the same smile plastered on his face, at the academy everyone was muttering and chatting about Naruto's doing but no one dared to ask the blond directly. Iruka arrived into the classroom accompanied by two ANBU operatives "Naruto, these two gentlemen need to escort you to the Hokage tower" informed the chunin teacher getting a nod from the blond who accepted and grabbed his belongings before leaving the room.

Naruto was still smiling from last's day' events, he suspected the Hokage wanted to know about the flying device he had made but as he usually was very supportive of his creations he was optimistic about this encounter with the Hokage.

"Hello Naruto, it's good to see you" said the old man welcoming the blond academy student, the masked ninja did a small bow to their leader before leaving the two of them alone in the room.

"Yeah, nice to see you too old man" replied the Uzumaki with a grin

"I think you already suspect what is this about…It was impossible to not appreciate your display and I must admit you surprised me, I believed your creativity and desire for make things with your own hands was just a hobby or something to fill your free time, but yesterday you showed me you have an incredible mind and the work-ethic necessary to make it flourish and for that I congratulate you" added the Hokage making the Jinchuuriki very happy.

"Thank you, you've been a great help during all this process" was Naruto's answer that got a nod from the Hokage.

"As the Hokage it's my duty to detect talent and make it grow for the wellbeing of the village so after your performance I thought about making a deal with you" started the Hokage before giving a scroll to Naruto "It'll be a secret until you sign it and obviously it's up to you if you wanna take it but I believe it's a very good option" added the Sarutobi while Naruto was reading the document.

The scroll had some titles that weren't relevant until the next portion:

Uzumaki Naruto has six months to fulfill the next requirements:

Perform the three academy techniques: Replacement, Transformation and Cloning.

Perform an elemental technique C-rank or above

Show adequate skill in a physical spar against a genin

If he's capable of achieving those requisites he'll have the promotion to genin and he'll be authorized to spend his time studying and developing new creations until the rest of his peers achieve the same ninja rank and then he'll be placed in a three-man unit and make a career as most ninjas did.

"In short you're giving me six months to have an early graduation test that will allow me to work full time on my work as an inventor?" asked the blond trying to be sure he understood everything

"Yes, although your test will be harder than the regular, you already have most of the capabilities required, the only point you lack is the physical portion…I Know you like to create things but in this world physical power is required, there are some ninjas so specialized that they don't have to move during combat but you're too young to have that level of skills so you need to have at least an adequate combat level" explained the Hokage to Naruto who understood what the old man was saying.

"Okay, I accept your deal" was Naruto's answer before signing the scroll

"It's not a secret but I'll advise you to be quiet about it or some people could complain about favoritism, the test will be administered by a ninja I'll chose in the right time to ensure a fair assessment of your skills" reassured the Hokage to Naruto who nodded

"Do you have some books with information about the academy techniques?" asked the blond who had missed the days where they covered that topic. The Hokage searched among his books and grabbed one for Naruto, it was called "The basis of ninjutsu for beginners".

Naruto knew some advanced things about chakra control and fire manipulation but he didn't know the actual techniques required at the academy and that book covered far more than just those three.

"And there is a final thing to this deal" commented the Hokage showing a new scroll "I'll keep this for the meanwhile but I saw your flying…device and was marveled with all the possibilities so if during these years you can make a larger prototype for reconnaissance and communications purposes, I'll give you a patent so every time the village makes one of them you'll receive a small payment for your contribution" offered the old man.

"I can make money from my inventions?" asked a surprised Naruto

"If you create something useful or helpful to the village as a whole, the administration can buy that from you in a single payment agreed between both parts or with small rewards every time your creation is made but you have to help in all the steps needed for its production" explained the Hokage making Naruto realize how much this meant for his future.

"You can count on me old man, I'll have an operational ship by the end of the year!" promised Naruto with a nice guy pose.

…..

..

After that Naruto went directly home, he had a hard test to prepare for, but with the book on the basics of ninjutsu and the scrolls their teachers gave them he had all the resources he needed and only had to put some time on that.

On that very same day he started studying in order to learn the three techniques required at the academy, he realized after doing so many exercises to improve his chakra control and master his elemental release the techniques sounded simple, the replacement and transformation techniques were easy and he was able to learn them on his first day, the clone technique was a little harder and while he wasn't able to create less than three without screwing the jutsu, he believed it was a useless move, at the end of the week he had the techniques under his belt and was able to use them quickly but the book talked about other kinds of clones and some more advanced but useful ninja techniques like the teleportation or some basics useful for survival.

Naruto had decided to spend the first portion of his free time to prepare to the exam while he conditioned his body doing some laps, push-ups, sit-ups and abs on his yard. At the end of the first week he was happy with his progress and wanted to treat himself some ramen as a reward for his hard work.

Ichiraku ramen was the only place where he could buy things like a normal person in the village without being lied about the prices, being insulted or just thrown away, the blond knew it wasn't fair but it was what he had to endure and he didn't want to make a scene for that, he didn't really know what would be the Hokage's reaction if he created some problem.

The blond was welcomed at the food stand he frequented and after telling Ayame what he wanted, he took his gama-chan to pay and suddenly someone moved close to him and took the stuffed wallet from his hands, when he realized who was the person in front of him he saw a man in a ninja attire with the sleeveless jacked most of the older ninjas used ' _must be a chunin or something higher_ ' thought the blond watching the clearly drunk man in front of him "Give me my wallet back!" shouted the blond annoyed at the man.

"Shut up brat, you should be paying us for not killing you…demon" replied the man checking Naruto's wallet with a mocking grin

"Listen, give me my wallet and we can forget this whole thing" offered Naruto raising his hands to appear harmless and make this man reconsider his actions

"Forget the whole thing?" questioned the man getting angry "You killed a lot of good people, that cannot be forgotten, you should be reminded every day what kind of shit you are" added the man raising his voice and drawing some attention.

"Give me my wallet back!" shouted Naruto getting annoyed of being robbed and insulted while the people around just watched and did nothing, the blond quickly dashed from his seat to the man, trying to get his wallet back but he was just a nine years old academy student while the other man was around his twenties and was a chunin so it was child's play to punch him in the face and throw him away.

"You just asked for a beating demon…learn your place!" said the man pressing his foot against Naruto's belly who was starting to feel the lack of air.

Naruto knew there was something special about him, something that made adults wary of him and something that made his anger dangerous and powerful, usually he didn't want to hurt anyone but today he reached his limit, he was having a good week and this people wasn't happy just limiting his options and making his life hard, they had to just keep abusing him " **Enough!** " shouted the blond with a deep voice. In his mind Naruto felt like if he was looking at a pond, a red pond at his feet so he kneeled and put a hand in the water.

The blond was aware that pond represented all his repressed emotions, the anger, the frustration, the loneliness, but for some reason he was capable of conceptualize it in a practical way and this time he didn't need much, just a little.

Naruto felt a rush of power but the only outside showing of his new power was the color of his eyes and the thickening of his whisker marks, he got on his feet and dashed towards the drunk ninja again but this time with surprising speed, now he returned the punch in the face and followed with a knee to the belly, making said chunin bend in pain. He took the walled back from his hands and then he looked at the pained face of the man "What did you say before?... **Learn your place!** " added Naruto before slashing his face with his elongated nails making him bleed and grab his own face on the ground.

A couple of seconds later appeared a team of masked ninjas "Stop! What is happening here?" questioned the man who seemed like the leader of the group

Naruto looked at the man with a very annoyed face, ready to attack him if he said some insult "Ask this fool or any of the people around, they watched everything just like you guys and did nothing but that shouldn't really be a surprise at this point" replied Naruto before walking past the masked ninja ignoring him completely, he placed some money on Ichiraku's counter and apologized to Ayame for not being able to eat what he asked but he had lost his appetite and then he went home without looking at anyone.

The ANBU were a little surprised with the nine years old' reaction because that was completely unexpected but after asking some witness they all said the same, the ninja robbed Naruto and after taking a beating the blond replied, got the upper hand and kick the chunin's ass.

At the next day Naruto wasn't surprised of hearing a knock on his door and opening to the third Hokage, he just sighted and before inviting him inside he needed to say something "I'm tired old man, I'm tired sick to taking this villagers' crap…so not anymore, I'm warning you, a fool makes something to me again he'll regret it" threatened Naruto with a very annoyed face

"Naruto, you have to underst-" the Hokage was going to try to get Naruto less aggressive but said blond interrupted him

"Can you tell me why all of this happens to me?" asked the blond, he knew the adults had some info about him because they usually muttered and shouted the same things, most went for demon but he had heard other insults.

"I can't tell you yet, it's for your own protection" tried to answer the third Hokage before being interrupted again by Naruto

"Then you can go, I feel protected enough" added the Uzumaki finishing the talk closing the door, he was angry and frustrated and the only figure had supported him was not helping him so he did not want anything with him now.

The blond was angry, frustrated but above everything he was focused, he would devote his entire time to develop as a ninja, being aware of the need of having strength in this harsh world he was going to make sure to have said strength in order to protect himself now and forever because he could not count on anyone else to do it for him.

Naruto spent all the mornings training his body and his ninjutsu, leaving the afternoon to his inventions and the redesign or the flying machine, he wanted to present the blueprints to the Hokage at the moment of his exam so he worked hard for it to be successful, he was working on some principles because if he wanted to be useful it needed to host at least a four-man unit, also it needed some sort of easy system of movement and a defensive system that allows the ninjas to protect the vehicle.

At the academy the other kids realized it had been a week and Naruto didn't returned so one of them asked Iruka and the chunin said the Hokage granted him a special permission to devote his time to other activities as long as he was able to pass the academy test along with the rest of his classmates, some people like Sasuke or Kiba complained about favoritism but when the teachers said the order came straight from the Hokage and if they had a problem with it they could talk to their leader the complaints ceased.

Some people missed the things he brought to the academy made by himself that were very interesting while others just celebrated the absence of the demon-boy in their room.

…..

..

Sarutobi was worried because of Naruto, it had been a month and the blond had not come to sell things he found or ask him something related to his ninja training as he usually did, his ANBU had reported to him weekly about his devotion to training and the time he spent working on his things but there were no clear results in any field yet.

He had asked Jiraiya to come back and approach him but the sanin answered he was following a serious lead and could not return before six months, but by that time the blond would already be a ninja and probably they would have another plan then.

Sometimes he wondered if Kakashi would be a positive influence in Naruto's life but the jounin was an emotional wreck and was drowning his feelings amid the ANBU's life so he doubted his influence would be any positive to the Uzumaki.

At the end of the six months period, Naruto appeared into Sarutobi's office, the Jinchuuriki hadn't come to him since the last time they talked and he appeared to be very formal in his posture "I've come to meet my end of the deal we had" said the Uzumaki as a greeting before placing a scroll on the Hokage's desk.

He unfolded the document and saw the blueprints for a new flying machine, it was a large globe with oval shape, there was some kind of balcony at its base to keep the ninjas crewing the ship, it was kept in the air thanks to the low density of hot air with an ignition engine at its center, there was a propulsion conduct at its back to let fire and air escape and let the machine move forward while a wheel controlled an aileron on each side to turn left or right. It had two cannons that used the same system as a crossbow to fire kunai with explosive notes attached to them.

"I hope the design satisfies your expectations, it should be able to keep six to seven people floating depending on their weight but it's optimal use is for a team of four ninjas, it requires a constant input of chakra but it doesn't requires it to be fire type because the engine transforms it, it has a wheel and a pedal to control direction and altitude and finally two cannons to shoot explosive notes down" explained the blond pointing at the different parts of the machine as he talked about them, the blueprints were very precise in terms of dimensions and materials because of their properties.

"I'll have some people check this but it seems impressive Naruto, how have you been this time?" replied the Hokage trying to recompose his relationship with the blond

"I'm been very busy preparing for this day, I'm ready to take your exam" said the blond with a face full of determination, he had thought about many possible inventions while working on some of them but he also used a lot of time to improve his ninja skills and now he was over any genin the old man could put against him.

The hokage's heart warmed seeing despite his resentment his motivation was strong so he signaled one of his ANBU agents who appeared next to him "bring me Kanade-sensei and Izumo Kamizuki please" asked the village's leader before addressing Naruto who was in front of him "Kanade-sensei is the current teacher of this year promoting class so she knows what are the standards for the graduation and Izumo-kun is a skilled genin that has a year and a half of experience, you don't need to defeat him but to show enough combat skills to satisfy her with your performance" explained the old man to the blond.

After a couple of minutes the two mentioned people came into the room escorted by the masked ninjas "the place is ready sir" informed one of them, making Sarutobi ask everyone present to follow his lead, then he went to the first floor and entered a very large room, when all the people following him was already inside he decided to speak "Well, Kanade-san, Izumo-kun I thank you for being here, you were called because the village is in need of your services. You see young Uzumaki here?" said the Hokage pointing to Naruto who raised his hand with a serious face, getting two nods he resumed his speech "I've made a bargain with Naruto and he'll be given the chance to take an early graduation test, so Kanade-sensei here will be the one who makes the assessment just on the practical portion of the test, while Izumo-kun will spar with him, his goal is not to win the fight but to prove his skills as a genin of the leaf" finished his explanation

"Well, then I'll assess your skills with the three academy techniques and your taijutsu, do you have any question Uzumaki-san?" asked Kanade to the blond who was surprised with the politeness of the woman but he supposed it was due to Hiruzen's presence in the room.

"No, I've been aware of those conditions for a while" was Naruto's response before he added something new "but I want to ask for something else…" said the Uzumaki getting the third's attention "You showed me the Shadow Clone technique a long time ago and I think that technique would be very useful in my workshop so I want to know if there is anything I can do during this test to get you to teach it to me" concluded Naruto making the old man nod.

"Defeat izumo and it'll be yours" offered the Hokage surprising the ANBU and Kanade there, they both knew Izumo was a genin with more than a year of experience, there was no way for a nine years old child to defeat him in combat especially if he didn't have some kind of natural advantage like a blood limit.

"You got yourself a deal old man" answered the blond smirking.

"Okay, Uzumaki-san please show me the transformation technique" asked Kanade with a serious look paying full attention to the blond and the details of his appearance.

"Henge!" shouted Naruto before transforming into Teuchi Ichiraku, it was a figure he knew very well and one of the few people to show him respect and appreciation. The transformation was practically perfect but she didn't know this man so she looked at the Hokage who nodded and assented with his head.

"You could use a bit less chakra in order to produce less smoke but it seems the appearance is very close to the person you're replicating" said the instructor as feedback for the blond "Now please make some clones" asked this time the academy teacher.

"Clone technique!" shouted Naruto this time creating five copies of himself, with all the training he did for his fire element, the blond actually developed a nice chakra control.

"good job Uzumaki-san, you don't need any pointer there" said this time the teacher "Now I'll throw this shuriken at your direction and you have to siwtch position with something around you, is that understood?" asked the woman to the blond who just nodded, in real life you weren't warned when to use the replacement technique but most of her students were surprised when you threw things at them randomly.

Naruto saw the incoming projectile and when he felt it was close enough he molded chakra and without the need of any handsign he said "Kawarmi!" and exchanged position with the shuriken itself, staying out of harm's way.

"Very good Naruto, you were able to perform the technique with a moving object without hand signs, in the future when you perform missions you need to do it without saying its name" added the woman finishing her assessment.

Naruto was a little surprised with all the constructive criticism, it was something entirely new to him and it would have been very useful during his time at the academy but he decided to keep quiet and just nod.

"Now it's Izumo-kun's turn to test you…remember I don't care about the result just how is your performance given the genin level you want to acquire" explained again the woman getting another confirmation from the blond who exchanged a look with the third Hokage, said genin used this time to get in front of Naruto

"No hard feelings?" asked the young genin to the blond who just looked at him with a very focused face

"Hajime!" shouted the academy teacher lowering her hand before jumping backwards, she didn't expect something so intense from a genin and a nine years old academy student but it was better be safe than sorry.

At first she expected young Naruto to rush on the offensive but it seemed he had a good mindset because he waited for his opponent, he kept a standard form while he was paying attention to every movement Izumo did. The genin on the other hand was much more relaxed, it was clear he was underestimating his opponent "I was expecting you would take the chance but it seems ending this match is up to me" said in a loud voice the genin before dashing towards Naruto. The blond realized his opponent was faster than him, he blocked his first attack and tried to punch back but his timing was off and his reflexes were too slow so Izumo jumped away before said hit landed.

Izumo tried attacking Naruto once again but the blond kid blocked his kick using the other arm and tried a kick this time and although his timing was better his speed was still too slow for him and the already genin was capable of dodging the attack without much trouble.

After those two exchanges Naruto raised his hand looking at the Hokage "Do I just have to defeat him?" asked for confirmation to the village's leader.

"Yes Naruto, if you manage to defeat Izumo-kun by knocking him out, forcing him to give up or Kanade-san calling the match in your favor I'll teach you the Shadow Clone technique" replied the old man using his words carefully ' _What are you thinking Naruto? This doesn't look good to you_ ' pondered the Hokage looking at the ongoing match.

"Hey kid, get down of your horse, I'm no pushover!" complained Izumo before reading himself to a serious fight "You asked for it, gloves off" warned the genin before dashing towards Naruto at full speed…which was only a little faster than before.

' _Okay…he's faster but not that much, I think I can do it_ ' thought Naruto before moving from his position for the first time since the battle started. The two times prior he waited and parried his opponent's attack, this time he waited but at the last moment he moved forward pushing his opponent who was starting to throw his punch.

' _Oh! This kid is good…he faked being slower to make Izumo underestimate his speed, but he needs to capitalize his strategy now or his opponent will be ready for the attack after this_ ' thought Kaede watching the fight.

Naruto closed the space that separated Izumo and himself, the genin tried an elbow strike with the other hand but the blond lowered his position and attacked with a powerful uppercut using all his body mass to enhance the strike which made Izumo fly half a meter from the ground but he was still in that fight because after Naruto's hit he was able to kick the Uzumaki's head pushing him backwards.

When the genin returned to the ground he assumed a crouched position assessing any weak points on Naruto's guard to exploit, he decided his next course of action and dashed towards the Jinchuuriki again from one of his flanks but what nobody expected was for Naruto to form a single tiger seal and perform a Great Fireball Technique without even shouting the name of the technique, this took all the presents by surprise especially Izumo who saw no other choice to jump and in that instant he saw Naruto waiting for him in mid-spin to connect with a roundhouse to his head.

Seeing the hard hit Izumo took in the air before falling abruptly, Kanade-san stopped the match to check the genin's health and then she looked at the blond while the old Hokage watched all that with a confused expression that didn't match the smile on Naruto's face "Why are you smiling Uzumaki-kun?" asked the teacher

"Because I won the bet…the old man never said I had to beat Izumo in taijutsu, he just said I had to spar with him in order to show my abilities in taijutsu and then he said he would teach me the jutsu if I defeated him" was Naruto's answer which brought a smile on the Hokage and a frustrated frown from Kanade.

"With all due respect Hokage-sama I believe Uzumaki-kun is ready to be a ninja, he certainly knows how to perform the required techniques better than he showed us, is capable of elemental manipulation and his real physical abilities are probably on the lower tier of many genin in active service" was Kanade's statement of Naruto's performance, she was still a little pissed with all the deception but she could not ignore the cleverness of all the setup the Uzumaki did.

"Thank you, Kanade-san, could you please help Izumo-kun, I have some business to settle with young Naruto" said the Hokage before motioning the Uzumaki to follow him out of the room ' _That was just marvelous, Naruto-kun clearly has the qualities to be a great ninja, he's very smart and able to twist words and situations to his favor…he kinds of reminds me of Kakashi…maybe they should meet_ '.

* * *

Liked it? Hated it?

Please tell me what you think

See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello! It's me again…I hope you weren't expecting someone else…(I had to try that)

I don't remember if I said this here or in a PM but I'll try to update the story once per week

See you at the end!

* * *

 **Chapter 3 – New Challenges**

Naruto followed the third Hokage to his office where the old man just motioned his ANBU to leave the room, then he proceeded to activate a seal that locked the room, anything said or done would only be known for the two of them.

"As a ninja you have many responsibilities, duties and privileges, one of them is information" stated the Hokage before giving Naruto a ninja headband "As the third Hokage now I proudly name you genin of the village hidden in the leaves, may the will of fire be always with you" added before searching a scroll in his vault and passing it to Naruto "that is your well-deserved reward, the shadow clone technique, you must remember it's forbidden for a reason and I'm only allowing this because of your particular circumstances but you cannot teach or pass that to anyone else or they could easily die trying to perform that technique" explained the Hokage before letting the scroll in Naruto's hands.

The Hokage kept silent for a moment but decided he would show his cards completely to the blond in hopes of regaining his trust "Last time we talked you asked something and I was not able to tell you the truth" said the Hokage picking Naruto's curious gaze as he nodded "This time I'll be completely honest with you and I hope you can wait until the end before asking anything…almost ten years ago the Kyubi attacked the leaf and the fourth Hokage gave his life to defeat it…you may have been told this at the academy because I made a law for this but the truth is there are nine creatures incredibly powerful out there called bijou, each of them has some number of tails from one to nine representing their power, they are incredibly powerful and cannot be easily killed, what many nations do is to contain and exploit their power sealing them in a living person, turning this person into both a weapon and a sacrifice for this reason that people are called Jinchuuriki. During the night of your birth the fourth Hokage and myself took every possible precaution because childbirth is one of the few things that can weaken a jinchuuriki's seal, we don't know what happened but for some reason the ANBU patrols securing the place were killed along my wife and the nine tails was released into the village, evidence point to the fact he was actually summoned into the center of the village, the fourth Hokage fought him off and took the match to the outskirts of the village to lessen the collateral damage but in the end he decided to seal the Kyubi within you, his last wish was for you to be seen as a hero but after seeing the villagers initial response to this information I made a law that forbid any person of the old generation to speak about your status as container of the Kyubi, unfortunately they found a way around it and despite not talking about the fox they still isolated you and treated you wrong and for that I must beg your pardon because it's entirely my fault" finished his explanation with a sad expression on his face, Naruto was processing all this information because it was a lot to take in but there were some things he was able to pick, first this was completely true, the posture and vibe the old man was projecting was of pure honesty and sorrow, also he was very sad and regretful so it was probably a good time to drop his rancor against him.

This time he was the one without words, he expected something big related to his origins but he never suspected it could be something like this, he had just found about the tailed beasts and resulted he had the most powerful one sealed on his gut ' _that is the power I get from the pond_ ' realized the blond who always visualized his mind as a yard with a pond and in that water body were the negative feelings he kept suppressed and he already used them twice to get power, the first time was accidental at the bully that screwed his hand-made toys but the second one was conscious against the drunk ninja that attacked him on the streets.

That actually explained many things for Naruto and comforted him a little but also lead to new questions, especially the one the Hokage was hoping he wouldn't ask "Why me?" said Naruto.

Hiruzen took a really long breath before answering, he had decided he would tell Naruto the truth but he didn't like it "This is the most sensitive of the secrets I've keeping from you and before I say anything you must understand something the law prevents anyone except for the two of us to talk about your status as a Jinchuuriki but this cannot be said outside of this office until you're at least chunin rank or have the capability to defeat a jounin are we clear?" asked the Hokage getting a nod from Naruto, he knew the blond would accept any condition even selling his soul to the devil for this piece of information but he could only hope the Uzumaki was able to understand the reason for the secrecy and keep it contained "The previous container of the nine tailed fox was Uzumaki Kushina, your mother…and the fourth Hokage's wife, they loved you with all their hearths and gave their lives so you could have a place to live and grow…Even in case something happened, there were some failsafes in place to kept the Kyubi trapped within Kushina but for the fourth to have sealed the Kyubi within you there must be a good reason but I'm afraid I don't know it" said the Hokage revealing the last piece of information he was keeping from Naruto regarding his identity.

The blond had to take a seat this time, he looked at the ground and grabbed his head with his two hands, he could not believe it…the Kyubi had been sealed within his mom before being inside him and his father had been the hero of the leaf, the man who turned the battlefield in Konoha's favor during the last war, the man who outmaneuvered the fourth Raikage who was supposed to be the fastest man alive…the man who defeated the Kyubi and saved the leaf village…his father.

He believed the news of the Kyubi were a lot to take in but this time the old man outdid himself

"Naruto, please say something you're making me nervous" asked Sarutobi with a worried face, he always feared Naruto's isolation could turn him into another Orochimaru, that's why he was so intended into sending him to the academy but after watching the results of his creations and the null social interaction he had at the academy he wanted to make him connect with the village through other ways but he still needed to develop those bonds in the blond.

"Thanks for being honest…I don't know how to feel, I really need some time to sort everything in my head and decide how I feel about it" replied Naruto with an absent look on his face while he walked to the door.

The blond would never remember how he arrived back to his home, so lost in his thoughts he was he could not register anything else, the two secrets the old man kept from him were very big, but now he understood a little why he kept that information from him for so long, a part of him even believed he wasn't ready yet judging for the reaction he was experiencing but it was his reality and he needed to deal with it no matter if he liked it or not.

He realized it was dark outside in the village when he was finally able to think more clearly, he had reached the conclusion his father sealed the Kyubi within him for a reason so he could always give him the benefit of doubt and he hoped for him to be seen as a hero so in his mind I wasn't his father who wronged him but the village, he mainly missed the chance to know both of his parents but there was no point in shedding tears for that at this point.

Regarding the Kyubi, Naruto believed the most probable reason for his dad to seal the fox in him was he believed the Uzumaki would need its power in the future which led to the logical conclusion of the third party that killed the ANBU and Sarutobi's wife during his birth, it was either a very powerful individual or a very skilled small group of people but for his father to believe he could need the fox's power the threat was real.

That put him in a strange place because just yesterday the only desire he had for power was achieving the necessary skill level for the Hokage to accept him as a ninja, he only wanted to make inventions that would change the world and made him famous but now it seemed there was a threat out there, a threat so powerful the incredible fourth Hokage felt the need to leave a power source for his child in order to face said threat.

The blond surprised himself taking a long breath, if he kept that line of thought he would get crushed by the weight of the world so he took a small pause before assessing the situation again, at this point that threat wasn't a real worry otherwise the Hokage would know so there was no real hurry just the certainty about a threat to him or maybe even Konoha out there lurking somewhere in the world so there was only one thing he could to at these moments…keep his regimen training and inventing things so he could be prepared when the time comes….

….

…

Without knowing or even being his goal, the revelations Sarutobi shared with Naruto gave him a sense of transparency and the strength to face things face to face, so now he had his two advisors and old teammates Homura and Koharu with him along with his old-time rival Danzo, in front of him there were four members of the Uchiha clan, Fugaku its current leader and three elders

"Fugaku, do you know why you have been called here?" asked the Hokage with a serious voice

The clan leader took a moment to think and look around before giving his answer "I'm afraid not Hokage-sama as far as I'm concerned our negotiations had ended after the clan refused your last proposal" replied the man with a calm expression.

"I see….well I'll be open with you, I think there has been enough secrets and threats around…We're aware of the Uchiha clan's intentions for some time and I've been your main supporter here, so I'll give you an ultimatum, if you don't find a way to keep your clan in line and accept some reasonable terms you'll force us to take measures" finished with a very serious face.

This declaration surprised greatly most parties involved, neither the Hokage's advisors nor the Uchiha clan members expected this kind of outcome from the kind old man the third Hokage had turned into, on the other hand Danzo was smiling ' _this is the resolute man who was named Hokage_ ' thought remembering the last time their sensei was with them.

Fugaku and the other Uchiha were speechless, they were plotting against the Hokage to take the village's leadership by force from some time but they were nowhere ready enough to put their plan in motion so soon and this took them by surprise.

"I expect your answer tomorrow morning" said finally finishing their meeting the Hokage before a squad of masked ninjas escorted the Uchiha members to the door.

"I must say I'm very surprised for your actions tonight but you'll have my full support…I think it was time you took some serious measures" was Danzo's comment once the four of them were alone

"Are you sure about this Hiruzen?" asked Koharu "We don't know if provoking them right now could hasten their actions" added the woman to make her point clearer

Sarutobi walked to the window to see the dark forms of the village "today I talked with Naruto Uzumaki, told him the whole truth regarding his parents and his status as a demon container…I expected him to hate his father or the village, he certainly has some reasons for that but instead he thanked me and without knowing it he lifted a great weight from my mind…that gave me the idea of facing this situation face to face…I already talked to the jounin commander Shikaku and ANBU commander Inu to ensure the village is prepared in case something happened but I believe this is the most effective way to deal with the situation avoiding unnecessary bloodshed" explained the third Hokage with a smile on his face.

"Hiruzen, how could you be so irresponsible disclosing such topics with a nine years old child?" questioned Homura who view Naruto as a trouble good for nothing child.

"Careful Homura, this is not the kind old man you used to boss, this is the man who was appointed Hokage by Tobirama-sensei" replied Danzo surprising the other three people in the room "you see Hiruzen, for years…probably since you took the hat from Minato-kun you have been merely a shadow of your former self, the Hyuga-Kumo incident and now the negotiations with the Uchiha were examples of how your avoidance of conflict usually led to inaction which was exploited by more resolute people…now you're acting like the man who was ready to fight the Kinkaku force and even going against sensei's orders, this is the man I respect and for that you have my full support" finished the old war hawk surprising Homura and Koharu who were aware of the plotting Danzo did behind Sarutobi's back "it seems this Naruto Uzumaki must be an interesting character if he was able to bring the old Hiruzen back…maybe I'll pay him a visit in the future" added before leaving the room.

"Well it seems the decisions had been already taken so we're not needed here, be ready for what they may bring…old friend" were Homura's words before leaving

"I sincerely hope this is the best path for everyone in the village, I really do" said Koharu following Homura out of the room

…

..

It had been a month since the day of truth and revelations and things in the leaf village seemed well, the Uchiha clan forced to decided something asked for three things, the ability to have a compound just along the rest of the clans, to not being on constant surveillance by the ANBU and to have a clear understanding of the jurisdictions and attributions to the Uchiha police and the ANBU forces, the first point was easy to implement, the second had to be negotiated and some handpicked members of the Uchiha hierarchy would have an ANBU tail for a while to make sure they followed their end of the deal and the last one required some work but was doable.

In the end the Uchiha only wanted some more respect and not being seen as if their efforts were in vein because many times the ANBU interfered with their work, so between the Uchiha clan leader, the jounin commander, the ANBU commander and the Hokage a new document was created to define the roles of each security organization within the village, it was true there could be conflicts later but as long as each of the parts was willing to expose those conflicts when they appeared, future issues would be solved.

There were some ruckus and rumors in the village during all his period but in the end it was just that, after all a clan so large as the Uchiha moving from their ancestral lands to the residential section of the village was something that surprised everybody but after a while people got used to that and things got back to normal with time.

Obviously not all the Uchiha were happy with his development but a considerable amount of people, civilian and ninjas from the clan were satisfied, they didn't want power or dominance, they only felt they deserved some respect and now they were getting it so the desire to control the village was something only a small group of individuals wanted but without crowd support it was impossible to achieve so they would have to settle with that they got.

….

..

Other of the measures Sarutobi did that night was in action now…

Naruto heard someone knocking at his door so he raised from his desk and went to open, at first he was surprised to find a single ANBU member at his door "Naruto-san I'm Inu, the Hokage asked me to come to you once a month and have a spar with you, allowing me to give any pointers I think would be beneficial to you" explained the ANBU to the blond who smiled

' _I don't know if the old man realizes how helpful this is regarding the threat out there but I'll not miss this opportunity_ ' thought the blond for a moment while he smiled "Sure, let me get in proper clothes" asked the blond before going inside for a moment, Kakashi stood at the door and couldn't help but bend a little to look inside, the place seemed clean and the desk was filled with papers and small pieces of metal in all shapes, there was a whiteboard with some notes and some scrolls around.

' _It seems Naruto is doing fine…I don't know what the Hokage must be thinking allowing a child so young to graduate from the academy in peace time but surely there must be a reason_ ' pondered Kakashi looking Naruto's home from his door

They went to a vacant training ground reserved by the Hokage for this, Kakashi asked Naruto to use all the skills he was able to come up with something useful for him and the blond was waiting for a chance to test himself so he did as he was told.

At first Naruto charged towards his rival, his taijutsu was slow but his strength was above average, the blond had good instincts but he clearly lacked combat experience although his body learned quickly after some beatings, what impressed him was his skill in fire manipulation because he was able to cast powerful fire techniques with a single tiger hand seal, he didn't need to shout the name or do anymore seals, just the last one and he was able to perform the large fireball technique, the Fenix flower technique and even the fire dragon technique which was an A-rank ninjutsu.

After beating Naruto, Kakashi offered some tips and things the blond should consider honing his skills, the blond thanked him for his time and returned home.

During the fourth of their monthly spars Naruto explained he had never wanted to be a powerful ninja instead he wanted to be an inventor and create things that would change the world and make him famous so Kakashi proposed he created something that enhanced his skills in combat, from a weapon to a support device, the Uzumaki had considered this before but he had never that the determination to do it.

The next month the blond brought a sword he had made but despite being a good forged sword, the blond didn't have the skills to use it efficiently, then Kakashi suggested some kind of non-weapon device and Naruto spent a month on it.

After that he tried his most recent invention, the portable shield, a piece of metal with some seals on it that worked as a barrier, that by itself wasn't that surprising, the useful of this creation was the fact he did some clones to block the attacks that came his way, and it was useful for long range attacks, but it did nothing when a more skilled opponent got close to him. It was the sixth of their meetings and Naruto had opened up a little with Inu who still kept his identity a secret from him, during one of their talks the ANBU asked if he was aware of other affinity besides fire to broaden his repertoire and the Uzumaki showed no idea what he was talking about, Kakashi asked how he decided to learn fire techniques then and the blond replied he wanted to forge his own metal pieces, which left Kakashi surprised and without words, he could be facing a ten years old kid capable of using A-rank fire techniques without even the affinity for them so he did a motion with his hand and two more ANBU appeared "I need two pieces of chakra paper" asked the masked ninja

"yes, sir" replied the two agents before disappearing

"Are they always watching us?" asked a curious Naruto

"Yes, but they follow me not you…also I've ordered them to stay out of hearing range so they can only watch us from a long distance" replied Kakashi with a relaxed voice

"So…are you some kind of high rank member in the ANBU forces?" questioned again the blond

"You are very smart Naruto, yes I'm actually the current commander" replied ruffing the blond's hair for a moment before they both stopped in their tracks, it was the first time they had any kind of physical contact outside of their spars, more so it was a sign of affection…

No one said a thing but both stood there in silence until the masked ninja returned with the object.

"Naruto, this is a paper made from trees fed with chakra so it's highly sensitive to the nature of the chakra it receives. If you channel your chakra through this it's going to have a different reaction so it's used to identify a person natural affinity, That doesn't mean you can only learn or perform techniques from said affinity but the techniques in your element will be easier to pick and more powerful when you cast them, on the other hand the further an element is from your affinity the harder it'll be to master that element and you'll need more chakra to make those techniques powerful" explained Kakashi holding a paper between his fingers, he applied some chakra to it and it crumbled "you see? This is the typical response for a lightning user as me…but despite being a natural lightning user at this moment I can perform techniques from other three elements" added the copy ninja to make Naruto understand his point.

"Okay so this doesn't determine what techniques I'll be able to learn but what will come easier and more powerful right?" asked Naruto for confirmation of the things he picked from Kakashi's speech

"you're right Naruto, now channel some of your chakra to the paper" instructed the ANBU to the blond who did as told and to Kakashi's surprise it sliced in two right in the middle.

"What does this mean?" asked Naruto with a curious face, he was expecting some fire-aligned reaction.

"It means you're a wind type…that's actually the furthest from fire element you can be which means you're very talented to be able of performing the fire techniques you do being so young…if you train your wind affinity through some exercises you'll be able to learn or create wind jutsus in the future, along with other perks it has" said Kakashi adding about enhancing weapons with elemental chakra and also explaining the other possible reactions of the paper to other elements.

Naruto was kind of amazed because from Kakashi's words what he did was extremely difficult, so either he was talented in ninjutsu or he had just that good luck, at the end of the day Kakashi explained to the Uzumaki the exercised required to develop his wind type element before learning techniques from that element.

Kakashi had to report a summary of his spars with Naruto to the Hokage so he naturally told him about the result of the test and he was very surprised "He really must take after his father then" said the old man making Kakashi's eyes wide ' _no…it's not like that…they both are incredible smart but there is a central difference that sets them aside, Minato-sensei was a collected person who faced any challenge with the premise that if it could be solved, he should be able to do it, he had confidence any person who put his mind to it could achieve great things…Naruto on the other hand faces everything as a riddle, or a puzzle, his mind is constantly wandering around the mysteries and the unresolved things, his curiosity push him forward…if I had to define them, Minato-sensei was a confident man while Naruto is a curious one…I wonder how far will Naruto's go in the world_ ' thought Kakashi for a while.

"Something on your mind Kakashi?" asked the Hokage

"No lord third…I'll take my leave" said Kakashi before teleporting away from the Hokage's office while said man smirked behind his seat, it seemed his plan was working, Kakashi was opening up to Naruto little by little through the connection to his father and the blond had someone besides him he could count on in case of needing something.

And with that things in the leaf village kept on its right course, the tensions with the Uchiha clan ceased while the villagers were ignorant of the whole ordeal, the ninjas kept doing missions and the newer generations grew with every passing day.

And speaking of new generations, Naruto Uzumaki was already eleven years old, his first mayor invention the flying machine was a complete success, the third Hokage had tested the machine in different situations and it proved to be a great asset so now the leaf village had six of them in their possession and two more were being built, three of them were constantly patrolling the fire country while the other three were in reserve.

The blond had developed a seal in every headband for the team leaders to send a distress signal to the air in case something went wrong, it could alert the enemy of their position but also allowed for the aerial support to arrive in a timely fashion.

Another of his inventions was a reinforced seal for the barrier around the village, before it only acted as a detection field that allowed the barrier team know about all the people that entered the village and some notable chakra spikes from the inside, now it had two more functions, a defensive barrier that created a powerful shield around the village forbidding anyone or anything to enter and an offensive shield that kept the village in lock without allowing anyone to get away, the best part of the barrier was the fact it was only unidirectional, the defensive barrier allowed for people to get away but stopped people for entering, while the offensive barrier allowed people to enter but kept any invader or attacker trapped inside.

The barrier was powered by Naruto and Hiruzen's chakra but the seals were designed to be managed by anyone using the already existing devices the barrier team used, it only added two more functions.

All of this allowed for the blond to get substantial amounts of money but he didn't have anything he wanted so he just used some of it to buy a yard next to his and some materials to work, he had been studying seals and it seemed his Uzumaki genes were kicking in because he was very good at them, after almost two years he was ahead of many people and in just a year more of two he could be considered a master.

Naruto was progressing well in his ninja training, he had already shared his beliefs about the Kyubi and his father with Kakashi but neither of them had discussed those topics with the Hokage, currently the Jinchuuriki was able to use wind styles techniques with even more ease then he used fire but Kakashi advised him to develop both elements, a ninja needed to be resourceful and both were aware of the dangers of the world, after talking about the reasons for Minato to leave the Kyubi sealed within Naruto even Kakashi realized he needed to get stronger if he hoped to protect Naruto in the future so after the first years of their spars he quit ANBU and came back to the life as a jounin, he still did some long missions but usually was around the village to talk more often with the blond or train for himself.

The Uchiha clan had adjusted well to their new living arrangements and now shared a common neighborhood with other clans like the Nara and the Inuzuka who also had large territories, Itachi and Shisui were taking more central roles within the clan as per request of the Hokage's advisors who wanted Fugaku and the clan elders to step down and find more trustworthy people to lead the clan.

Some people resented these decisions but the clear majority of the clan supported it so there was no hate to instigate for the masked man whispering in some people's ears. For some reason, the third Hokage had stopped his plans for good so he decided to drop the whole thing.

As a ninja, the Hokage had asked in a few occasions for Naruto to do some missions, he wasn't usually called but when there was something with potential scientifically valuable he was called as an expert. The first time was to examine the effects of a weird meteorite that boosted the power of the village's ninjas so the Hokage sent a team of ninjas accompanied with Naruto and a medic ninja to study the phenomenon, resulted the rock's radiation was toxic for the human body and while it conferred a powerful energy it also killed the person the more he used it.

The village leader was concerned with this because they had thought this power source could boost their village's reputation among the other villages so the blond Uzumaki proposed it could be used as something reserved only to the leader or a selected few to train and hone these powers in hopes of not having to use them except by life-or-death situations but still having a hidden ace in case of need. The man loved the idea and thanked Naruto for it, the medic complained a little but there was precedent of something similar with the hero's water from the village hidden by the waterfall so his words were unheard.

The second time Sarutobi asked Naruto to participate on a mission was to explore a facility his ninjas believed could have belonged to Orochimaru, the blond studied the place and was disgusted with the man's work, his signature was in all the experiments here because they tried to fuse special traits among species although he had to admit he could use equipment as good as the one the snake used.

This was also the first time Naruto fought against an enemy who wanted to cause him real harm but the rest of the team, all higher in rank than the young genin were impressed by his ability with fire techniques, he had dealt with his enemy saturating the place with fire and suffocating them in a narrow corridor one of the jounin had reported smart and brutal…kind of Orochimaru's style but the old man was aware this was one of the many people who viewed Naruto as nothing more than the fox in disguise.

The third time he was asked to go with Kakashi and other ninja to the land of snow, he was chosen because Kakashi would be there and they wanted to prove a way to transport people using the flying machine he built, so he was there in case something went wrong with the machine. The person they were escorting was a famous actress and in the end they helped her and the people protecting her to overthrow her evil uncle who ruled her old country after betraying her father for the throne.

What surprised everybody was the fact the land of snow turned into the land of spring thanks to the heat generators and there was no need to say how interested Naruto was in learning all he could about the incredible technology the village had, those chakra armors were something he had dreamed about but to see that in action was incredible, he had even been allowed to keep the broken ones Doto and his men used to study and reverse engineer them as a thank you for his role in the emotional support he offered during the whole ordeal. The blond was marveled at how they had their own flying machines with a design very different to his, the train and many other things, he wrote a lot in his notebook to further research when he returned and said good bye to Koyuki and the rest of the crew.

This time it was Kakashi who praised Naruto's skills putting him at chunin level in terms of combat abilities, his fire mastery along his other techniques were a crucial factor in a place where the Ice was the main weapon, due to the artificial nature of the Ice provided by the chakra armors, a strong fire technique could melt it so Naruto and Kakashi were the heavy hitters of the team.

By now Naruto was twelve years old, the other academy students he met during his time there were now genin in active duty and even Kakashi took a team of them for the first time, he had Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuga and Shino Aburame under his care and while they weren't the most socially engaged group of people, they were a cohesive unit that cared for each other.

Currently they had been a team for three months and were doing a C-rank mission, there was small village close to the frontier of the Fire and Wind countries which was known for its mines rich in minerals, a few days ago there were some tremors and two workers were trapped inside so the chief hired a team of Konoha's ninjas to rescue them.

When they arrived to the village the elder in charge and the engineer in chief who was in charge of the workers at the mine received them with open arms, Kakashi put he and his team to work immediately because with people trapped every moment could be fatal, Hinata's byakugan proved to be an incredible asset because she was able to locate the two missing people who were very much alive and Shino was able to secure some small holes for them to have a guaranteed supply of oxygen, he was assessing the mountain's structure to use his lightning blade for rescuing the trapped workers, he was using his lightning chakra with surgical precision when another tremor was felt and capitalizing his lack of footing, someone hit him with a sphere of mud "team, get cover!" shouted Kakashi before a man appeared between his students, kicking a surprised Shino and Hinata, while Sasuke activated his Sharingan to face the large man attacking his teammates.

He felt a movement around him and crouched to avoid a hit to his face, then kicked the figure feeling a hard feeling before jumping away and lifting his headband "Oh! It's Gantetsu, the Dark Shinobi" said the copy ninja after identifying his adversary.

"It's the Legendary Dark Shinobi, copy ninja" corrected him the missing ninja from the rock village

' _Damn…this guy's supposed to have the ability to harden his skin to make it as hard as steel_ ' thought Kakashi caressing for the leg he used to kick him, he looked around to see Sasuke bruised but still on his foot while Hinata was raising from the ground and Shino seemed a bit more hurt.

Another movement took his attention away from his students as his enemy charged at him again, this time Kakashi just avoided him because a physical attack would only hurt him in the end "Don't take your eyes off me or it could be the last mistake you make" warned the missing ninja before doing some hand seals "Earth Style Black spikes" said and suddenly the place where Kakashi was got filled with dangerous pieces of a black rock with the same consistency his skin had.

The missing ninja kept charging at Kakashi who didn't have any option but to dodge and jump away, the loose rocks and constant spikes his enemy raised kept him from taking the race he needed for the Raikiri and he doubted his long-distance version would have enough power to pierce his black-skin, the copy ninja tried with some fireballs and even some earth techniques but none of them was able to stop the black ninja who just shrugged every ninjutsu thrown his way. A short glance at his team confirmed him they weren't doing much better, his teamwork probably gave them a chance, but that man must be a chunin level ninja because of the skills he showed with earth style techniques, Sasuke was reacting better thanks to his Sharingan but Hinata had trouble getting close to strike at him and Shino seemed to have a broken arm for how it was hanging from his shoulder, but he still provided some long-range support with his insects.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang" said Kakashi to his enemy making a hound of pure lightning dashing towards his opponent who was surprised with its speed and could not avoid the jutsu, but despite being at elemental disadvantage it only gave him a medium-intensity shock, it was unpleasant but nothing harmful

"Nice try…Kakashi Hatake…this is my maximum sturdiness" said Gantetsu before showing his right arm which got slightly enlarged adopting a club-like shape, he ran towards Kakashi one more time and focusing all the chakra he could, the leaf jounin braced the hit to his midsection, he felt many of his ribs breaking but he grabbed his enemy to use his lightning blade and pierce him, due to the hit he took he wasn't able to aim well and could only pierce his stomach.

Choseki heard his brother's scream of pain and left his fight, the Uchiha posed a nice adversary now that his body was getting used to his speed but he lacked the firepower to hurt him, the other two were even more harmless to him, he threw some rocks at Kakashi who received most of them on the back and took his brother who was bleeding on the ground before leaving the place swearing vengeance.

Kakashi coughed some blood, he got up from his position towards his team, Hinata was mostly fine, Shino had a broken arm and Sasuke was fully covered in bruises with his cheek and eye swollen but nothing too serious "Sensei…are you okay?" asked Hinata.

"my life is not in danger but I'm not in fighting shape…plus we still need to rescue those workers" said coughing some more blood much to Hinata's worry "I need to call for help" added before collecting some of the blood he had thrown.

"But Kakashi-sensei it took us two days to arrive here" replied Shino while Kakashi did some seals

"Summoning technique!" shouted Kakashi

"Yo!" said Pakkun greeting the group "Kakahshi what happened to you?" asked the dog concerned

' _a dog…is our reinforcement?_ ' was the common thought in the three genin minds

"Pakkun I need you to call Naruto…we got to fight some missing ninja but we still need to rescue some people and I'm not in any shape to fight if it comes to that" explained the copy ninja to his companion who nodded

' _Naruto…as in Uzumaki Naruto?_ ' wondered Hinata hearing his words

"Reverse summoning!" conjured Pakkun while he stood over an open scroll with his frontal legs together

A cloud of smoke appeared around them and then a blond boy around their same age was visible for the whole group, he had a white coat and a standard black ninja uniform under that, on his belt was a headband with the symbol of the leaf and he showed a carefree attitude much like Kakashi's.

"Pakkun…Why did- wait, Kakashi what happened?" asked Naruto watching the crouched form of his friend-teacher-older brother figure

"We were trying to rescue some miners and two missing ninjas from the rock village attacked us, I managed to injure one of them but the other took him away and the workers still need to be rescued, I called you here to help us" explained the copy ninja getting a nod from Naruto.

Without saying a word he created three copies of himself, two went to lift Kakashi while the other offered to carry Shino but the Aburame declined "Hyuga-san please show me where are the miners…the rest can go with my doppelgangers to get some help" ordered Naruto, Hinata nodded immediately, Shino also agreed with him because it was the most logical course of action, Sasuke wanted to argue this boy was no one to boss them around but he was in too much pain for that, he needed to be checked and the sooner the better.

Hinata lead Naruto towards the mine, she signaled the place where the miners were trapped, she was grateful they weren't hurt by the last tremors and their previous fights, Naruto looked around and asked about critical point for weight support to Hinata and she tried to help as much as she could.

Naruto believed he needed to take away all the loose rocks before attempting to get the workers out of that place so he raised his hands and created ten chakra threads and used them to remove the rocks, Hinata was using her byakugan so she was able to see the thin chakra constructs Naruto made and when any of them attached itself to a rock, the blond was able to move it at will controlled by this string so ten at time Naruto was able to remove the superficial rocks "I'll create a tunnel from this place to the workers location but I need you to tell me if I'm too close to them or if the rocks around start collapsing again right?" asked the blond getting an affirmation from the girl who was amazed at how Naruto managed the whole operation.

Naruto this time put his hands on the ground and a large number of chains came out from his sleeves and buried themselves into the ground, his plan was to make a cylindrical hole under the mine to not weaken its support, he used a lot of chakra to create a great amount of chains because he needed a tunnel wide enough for a person to pass through it. After a while Hinata could see him sweating because of the accuracy he needed, he had to use a large amount of chakra and focus, some minutes later he looked at Hinata and she signaled he needed to go higher, he did until she warned him he had already reached them, at this moment he dissipated most of the chains except for the ones at the border of the lot, keeping a cylindrical tunnel composed by one single layer of his chains "tell them to use the tunnel and warn me if something happens" asked this time the blond to the Hyuga who gave the instructions to the workers and helped them raise when they were at the reach of her hand.

She was helping one of them to get back at his feet when they were surprised by some people clapping, both Konoha genin turned around to see the engineer in chief and some family members of the trapped workers cheering and thanking them for releasing their workers, spouses or friends. "I already know what happened and despite the threat you and your people face you still managed to help our people and for that you have our never-ending gratitude" said the chief bowing to Naruto and Hinata.

"You have nothing to thank, it's our duty to help people in need if it's within our capabilities" replied Naruto before grabbing Hinata's shoulder and leading her back to the rest of her team.

* * *

Okay, first things first, Naruto is in no way more powerful than Kakashi.

So...dog summoner Naruto, I have some interesting ones waiting for you.

This is the last chapter I had before publishing this so from now on it's all new, I can only hope you like what comes next (I have some very crazy ideas).

Good bye!

P.S.: Please leave your thoughts!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 New Developments

The small village had a clinic that worked as a hospital, it had around ten beds and a couple of doctors but fortunately that had been enough to help the leaf ninjas and the trapped workers. It had been a week since Naruto was called there and the other events prior to his summoning.

Kakashi and he talked about the fight, the jounin explained his opponent didn't have that impressive skills but the terrain was difficult for him to fight on and the only technique that made him famous was troublesome to get around, his Raikiri was the only technique with enough piercing power to pass through his black skin but in a terrain so unstable he had to allow him to land a hit to be able to strike him back, he expected Gantetsu to be in a similar shape to his because he was sure he pierced his stomach completely but he didn't expect the man to die from that wound.

When Naruto asked about the brother Shino and Hinata told him he was a large man with powerful strikes that based his style in using his long-distance attacks to cover his moves and capitalize with potent strikes, he didn't seem nothing out of the ordinary but was a strong rock ninja.

Sasuke on the other hand was busy training himself to the ground, he didn't want to get defeated by a loser like that again, he was able to realize the two-missing ninja were brothers and they were stuck with the loser one and lost against him, just like Itachi and him, the genius and the common one…

At this moment Naruto was sitting on the clinic's roof with Shino and Hinata while the three of them watched as Sasuke trained at the back of the clinic, he was trying to improve his fire jutsus to give them more power "excuse me…were you at the academy with us?" asked a shy Hinata who remembered that never-give-up attitude from the blond.

"I also believe you were with us during the first year" added Shino adjusting his glasses.

"It surprises me you two remember…no one payed any attention to me…but yes, I entered the academy with all of your generation but after a couple of months the Hokage allowed me to drop if I fulfilled some requisites" replied Naruto with a neutral tone, he wasn't complaining just remembering.

Naruto remembered the time where he was at the academy and despite his efforts nobody talked to him or helped him when he needed something, at first he left to work on his creations and when he convinced the Hokage with his first flying prototype he was allowed to drop out entirely.

"Why did you leave?" asked Shino this time

"Because no one talked to me and I found working on my creations was more interesting" was the Uzumaki's answer that made both clan heirs get silent in that spot, for them the academy was a place to grow and share with other in their same position, for the blond it was a place of isolation and boredom

"You're adding more chakra…it'll only make it broader you need to compress the chakra if you want your techniques to be more powerful" said Naruto in a loud voice surprising the other three genin.

"And what do you know…in case you weren't aware this technique is the signature of the Uchiha clan and I've been able to perform it for years" replied Sasuke talking about the great fireball technique. Naruto took a deep breath in annoyance and doing a single tiger seal did the mentioned technique, creating a larger and more powerful fire sphere than the Uchiha did, leaving everyone looking at Sasuke wondering what would be his reaction.

When they looked at the blond again, he was already gone from the roof, Kakashi had said theese men could come back so he wanted to spend some time there recovering in case they returned. The village elder had said a couple of weeks ago the two of them appeared in his office threatening to harm the people of the village if he didn't tell the workers to abandon the mine, they tried the same with the chief but he didn't even listen to them so attacking seemed like the only logical step.

Naruto believed after hearing Kakashi's explanation he could take on the black shinobi guy and he hoped Sasuke and Hinata were able to defeat his brother if they had to fight again so for the meanwhile they would keep watch over this village to protect them in case the missing ninja returned.

After two weeks Kakashi was back on his feet, he could move, walk and use his chakra but he still felt it was dangerous for him to fight seriously because his ribs were just mending, with any kind of force they would break again but he didn't want to leave the place because he suspected those guys could return and he wanted to protect these people.

He was walking around the village when he felt a chakra spike, it was at the outskirts of the city so he supposed they rogue ninjas were back "Don't rush things up!" shouted Naruto running past him, he was being followed by Sasuke and Hinata, good it seemed his students trusted in him by now, he tried to move as fast as his body allowed him.

When he arrived Sasuke and Hinata were trying to fight Choseki, the man was was showing some bruises this time which meant his students were getting better but instead he decided to stick at long range ninjutsu where earth users used to triumph over fire users and members of the Hyuga clan.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang" said Kakashi surprising everybody, the electrical hound chased after the Iwa ninja at blinding speeds shocking him and inflicting a lot of damage so a single kunai to his chest thrown by the copy ninja was able to do the trick.

He searched for Naruto and found him fighting around the mountain, the same mountain where he fought against that ninja but there was a difference, Naruto was more resourceful than him despite his thousand copied techniques, Naruto could stop his attacks using his chains, he could also use them to raise himself from the ground level, he couldn't fly on his own but he could step on them to get higher than the spikes could reach.

Kakashi could see Gantetsu getting frustrated with each second he couldn't harm Naruto, the blond on the other hand was just testing the man, measuring his own capabilities against his, Kakashi and Naruto were able to see the victory was at his reach but the blond was using this chance to see how he fared against an enemy shinobi, this man seemed like a chunin level ninja with some nice tricks but Naruto was around the same level and his tricks were better "Okay, time to finish you off" said the blond with a bored tone that irked his adversary, he ran towards Naruto with his full body covered in black skin but Naruto used two chains from each sleeve to grab each one of his limbs and suspend him into the air

"Fool, no matter how hard you push you'll not able to harm me while I'm in this form" shouted the renegade ninja

"As much as I would like to prove you wrong…I don't need that to kill you" replied Naruto doing the same move he did on the clinic's roof, he did a single tiger seal and fired a hot stream of flames towards his adversary, what surprised Sasuke was the fact he didn't stop, he kept the fire technique for two minutes until his opponent's chakra signature disappeared which spoke wonders of Naruto's chakra and mastery over the fire element.

Kakashi walked past his students to see Naruto "Are you okay?" asked the copy ninja

"Yeah, you already described his fighting style so it was easy to figure a way to fight him efficiently" replied Naruto before seeing the two missing ninja dead "Can we go back to the leaf now?" asked the blond, he knew Kakashi wanted to protect the village and while he didn't care much he could empathize with the jounin for wanting to help.

Kakashi just asked for someone to get Shino so the blond created a doppelganger and went for the Aburame boy, Hinata expressed her concern for Kakashi to travel after his injury but the jounin said there was no need to worry because Naruto would take care, both Hinata and Sasuke were very confused until the blond opened three scrolls on the ground "Sealing technique: release!" shouted the Uzumaki before something massive appeared next to the mountain.

"One of the flying machines?" asked Hinata who didn't believe Naruto could have one

"No…they're not that big…this must be two times longer" replied Sasuke who was pretty amazed when the Hokage showed the three flying ships that would patrol the country

"Hahaha it's an innocent mistake but this is no ordinary vehicle, this is the Sky Regent, two point five times longer and one point eight times higher than a normal flying device…and if you're wondering how I have one of these, that's simple I'm the person who invented them after all" said Naruto making a mad-scientist pose but with a proud smile on his face

"You!" both Sasuke and Hinata shouted in surprise, those machines were the most revolutionary invention in ages and they came from this blond boy who was the same age as them…that didn't seem possible at all

"Wait…you always brought cool things to the academy…little vehicles and machines" added Hinata remembering those old days

' _you payed attention to me?_ ' wondered a very surprised Naruto

"How…I mean, you have the same age as us…how could you come up with something like this?" questioned Sasuke, he knew this wasn't something that made Naruto powerful but it clearly made him special and he wanted to find out how he achieved that.

"To be honest…I don't know, once I created my first hand-made toy I felt joy at making things with my own two hands" replied Naruto raising his hand to the sun "Then I felt curiosity for some things and took all the steps I believed could lead me to that goal…for example I wanted to forge my own metal so I trained until I was capable of using fire jutsus when I was nine" explained the Uzumaki making the Uchiha's eyes go wide.

He learnt the great fireball technique around that age but he never suspected another person outside of the Uchiha clan having that skill, what could this possible mean about Naruto

"it feels as if I've been cast aside from something important" was Shino's greeting that prompted a moment of silence between the other genin including Naruto who didn't want to make Shino feel sad.

"Summarizing Naruto created the flying machines the village uses and is going to take us back to the leaf in one of them" explained Kakashi trying to help mending the mood.

"Oh! That certainly is remarkable" was Shino's reaction before asking the blond how to go inside.

In the end Kakashi went to gather the village elder and explained to him the threat had been eliminated so now they could leave and work with the same peace as they ever did, the villagers were very grateful with the leaf ninjas and thanked them, then all members of team seven boarded on Naruto's flying machine and went back to the leaf.

Sasuke was studying the vehicle with a critical eye, he didn't understood much but he was able to see the metal composing the globe was much sturdier, and there were four control points besides the central one for the person navigating the ship, later Naruto explained he did many modifications from the original design based on his own chakra capabilities and skills, the standard ship was made to be piloted by any ninja without expending too much chakra because it could be an obstacle if he had to fight, while this one was made to work with a larger amount of chakra but the blond had a lot to spare and after watching his performance during the fight against the Rock ninjas Sasuke had no doubt about that.

The Uchiha had followed Naruto's advice and compressed the chakra for his great fireball technique, but it was smaller than before and did the same damage but in a closer area, then he realized adding more chakra but keeping the compression was enough to make the jutsu have the same reach as previous but with at least twice as much power, the only problem was the fact it also used twice as much chakra so he needed to be very accurate when using it. Naruto casted a long-range fire jutsu and kept it unwavering for two whole minutes besides the use of those chains of his, the blond was clearly a powerhouse type of ninja but for some reason his control over fire seemed superb.

"What kind of ninja are you Naruto?" questioned Sasuke during their journey back to the village

"none" replied Naruto confusing Sasuke, Kakashi was close so he was able to hear and he already knew the Uzumaki's character well enough to understand that answer "I never wanted to be a ninja, I just want to invent things but I've had to learn the things I believe will allow me to make and use better inventions" added Naruto to explain his first answer ' _and also to be ready when the threat who faced my father comes back_ ' added the Uzumaki on his mind.

Just like that a journey that took team Kakashi two days the first time was covered by Naruto's flying machine in twenty hours, they landed into the ground at the outsides of the village and no one activated the alarms because they already knew about Naruto's personal vehicle…and the possibility he created more in the future.

A few minutes later the whole group was in the Hokage office and said man was quite confused at seeing Naruto along with Kakashi's team so he asked the copy ninja for his report and then he understood how the blond got there, he was pleased because the jounin ensured his team safety to the best of his ability and managed to complete the mission without losing anyone, he would still need a week or so without hard efforts while Shino probably would take twice that much time but the Aburame could always train with their insects or just some chakra exercises so for them the recovery time was always useful.

When Kakashi finished his report he asked the genin if any of them wanted to add something but they seemed to agree with their teacher which showed Naruto did a very job with them during the mission, because according to the jounin's report he took a role of leadership and if he had to guess it would be based on his skills and power.

"Well team Kakashi, you earned a payment equivalent to a B-rank mission and that also includes you Naruto" informed the Hokage surprising the blond "I thank you for supporting Kakashi and his team, now all of you have a week off and I expect to hear from Shino's recovery in the meantime" instructed the village's leader before asking all of them but Naruto to go "There is a person I'd like to introduce you" added the village's leader before taking the Uzumaki for a walk.

The Jinchuuriki was a little confused when the Hokage led him towards the village's hot springs, they were talking about the last mission because the old man was impressed with Naruto's performance because as the blond itself said many times in the past he wasn't a ninja nor he did want to be one, he only trained and honed his skills in order to have a greater success as an inventor and also to have the strength to protect his creations but many things like stealth and underhand tactics that pretty much every ninja knew were things that didn't interest him.

They arrived at their destiny and saw a large white-haired man who was trying to watch to the women's side with a small telescope, the Hokage cleared his throat getting this man's attention "Jiraiya-kun I brought young Naruto here" introduced the old man "Naruto, this is one of my students, Jiraiya the toad sage" added Hiruzen getting them to know each other before leaving the place.

"Mmm mister are you some kind of pervert?" asked a confused Naruto who didn't know what to expect from a man like that, on one side he was a student of the Hokage and he knew about the three-legendary ninja but on the other he was peeping at the women's side of the hot springs

"Hahahaha it's normal for a kid like you to make the mistake of thinking I may be a simple pervert but you're wrong…I'm a super pervert! I gather information about the wonders of woman body all through the elemental nations!" stated the white haired sanin with pride in his eyes, making Naruto very confused because he didn't understand how that was any better.

The two of them walked away from the hot springs towards a small store close to the forest, there Jiraiya sat and talked to Naruto explaining him about his relationship with the blond and what he had been doing during this time, the sanin was able to tell Naruto wasn't used being close with adult people because while he listened with attention he didn't seem personally invested, so they talked for a long time to know each other and Jiraiya was marveled at how Naruto's mind worked, he told the Uzumaki all the things he had already accomplished were incredibly great for a twelve years old so he should also be proud of his success so far, the blond also asked some things to the toad sage about his own life and the styles he preferred as a ninja.

After talking about themselves, the young Uzumaki asked about his parents and this was how Jiraiya got his way into Naruto's hearth, he told the blond many stories about the two of them and how they seemed incredibly happy when they found Kushina was pregnant, he even gave the blond a copy of the book "Tale of the gusty ninja" where the name Naruto was first introduced, he explained to the Jinchuuriki that his father named him after the main character hoping he would inherit some of the traits he showed, in particular his perseverance and his hopes to make the world a better place.

When Naruto found about his parents and the Kyubi from the old Hokage, he felt overwhelmed by all the new information, when he looked at it with a clear mind nothing changed currently in his life but it explained how he came to his current situation and it was a real eye-opener, the most he felt after learning the truth was a great weight lifted from his shoulders, now hearing about his parents and the personal information about his origin he felt his hearth being filled with love he didn't know he had in the first place.

The next day Naruto would meet Jiraiya again but this time they would work together, the sanin was interested in the Uzumaki's work, he had seen the large flying machines patrolling the fire country and was amazed a ten years old kid was able to come up with something like that, the Jinchuuriki showed them some of his newer creations and both of them talked about some ideas he had, the toad sage was very interesting in his sealing because the blond was a very adept student of the art.

One of Naruto's current projects was a portable shield, something he could control remotely so it could block attacks but don't restrict the movement of his hands, he was using a shield he forged with many barrier seals engraved on it and while it was something strong, Jiraiya suggested he used some kind of draining seal so instead of just creating a wall, the seal could suck the energy behind the attack to make it more resistant, all the barrier seals had a maximum resistance that depended on the type of seal and the chakra used to create it, any attack above that resistance level would break the barrier, if he opted for a seal that absorbed the attack then it would make any barrier capable of protecting him and even use that energy for something else. Then he showed him the fire containment seal Fuka Hoin he used on some scrolls to protect himself from some nasty fire techniques, having the seal made allowed him to react quickly in case he received that kind of attack (after learning of the Uchiha clan's intentions he did dozen of this and shared them with some high-profile people in the village).

Kakashi came in the afternoon to check on Naruto and found him working with Jiraiya in the shield he was creating, he was happy the blond had another person in his life, and especially if it was connected to his roots, soon he asked how was the progress and joined them pointing some ideas and flaws he could see for the blond to improve his creation.

..

..

Itachi always thought his brother had a lot of talent but his insecure personality sometimes got the best of him, now he was frustrated a boy around the same age as he was so much skilled than him, he was even more proficient with fire based techniques, something was outrageous so the older brother took upon him to have some training with Sasuke to ease his mood.

"That advise Uzumaki-san gave you is very useful but you must understand father did not tell you in order for you to discover that on your own" explained Itachi "It's very common among young ninjas to try to learn as many techniques and styles as they can but learning something is not the same as mastering something, you need to hone your skills on your own, do the techniques you already know over and over until you use less chakra, find new ways to use them and make them more powerful" said the Uchiha prodigy in a lecture voice

If Sasuke had to be honest he should have to say his father said something very similar after he learned the great fireball technique but he discarded his words for him being too busy to train him but now he was beginning to see the point in them, Naruto himself had said he trained hard until he got what he needed for his work so he should probably follow his example "I think I get it now brother" replied Sasuke with a more peaceful expression "although it would be useful if you could give me some pointers…" added the young Uchiha looking at the ground, he still admired his brother and wanted to spend some time with him but was too old and prideful to say it loud.

"Okay Sasuke, let's do that" replied the older Uchiha flicking his forehead before walking to the lake they used to train their fire techniques.

…..

..

After the success of the last mission involving Naruto, the third Hokage was thinking about sending the blond as a reinforcement with other rookie teams, this would allow them to take slightly riskier missions and could be a chance for the Uzumaki to interact with other genin, he spoke to his son and he seemed willing to give this idea a chance so the next time he would assign them a C-rank mission the blond would travel with them.

Jiraiya left the village a week later but this time would not be the same as always because he had bonded with Naruto, his godson and he promised to come back in a couple of months to meet him and talk about his work, the blond was very happy having someone with deep knowledge in seals because it helped him a lot, if somehow he was able to find some expert puppet master and forger he would be very lucky but for now he would have to explore those fields on his own just like he had been doing to this day. The day after the toad sage left the village Naruto was called for another mission.

The third Hokage explained to Naruto he wanted for the Uzumaki to have some relationship with his peers so he would ask him to fulfill some missions with the rookie teams somewhat often, the blond thanked him for being so forward with that determination and only asked to have some time to work on his creations, the old man had a plan for Naruto but he needed to acquire more experience in the real world first, not only in combat but meeting other people, and exploring the world, he could not solve the world's problems if he only knew the leaf village.

For this mission, he would assist team Asuma, composed by Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru remembered him from his days on the academy but neither of his teammates did, also despite remembering him, he didn't know anything about he like Hinata did so that was something. To Naruto Shikamaru was a smart but lazy guy, Choji was an insecure person with a weak will and Ino was a little girl who lived in a world of princesses and unicorns, obviously he didn't say that to them but he was surprised the Hokage's son allowed such behavior on his students.

They had to travel to the border of the Earth and Wind countries to act as the guards of a famous local auction, the town mostly filled with people from both countries would likely have some ninjas from the Sand and Rock villages respectively, but the organizers hired them as a third and neutral party, It was a journey of four days so the ninjas had to pack accordingly before leaving their home. There was high risk of confrontation but Asuma's name and fame should dissuade most ninjas from trying anything funny.

During the first part of the travel Naruto realized how hard it was for most people going from one place to another, he had a good stamina but wasn't used to jump through the trees for so long and got mildly winded after the first hours, he could keep the pace but wasn't satisfied with his performance, looking around he could see the three genin doing just like him, the only difference was Naruto and Chouji weren't complaining because Ino talked about all the things that weren't up to her standards while Shikamaru ranted about things he considered unnecessary ' _How could Asuma-san withstand this all the time?_ ' wondered the Uzumaki sick of their bickering after only six hours.

They did some shifts to keep watch and rest a little around the borders of the fire country, they needed to be in good shape before going into foreign lands, away from the protection the leaf village and the flying ships provided to its people, the avoided wind country taking a slightly longer route because Asuma wanted a place too hot, traveling through that country or worst the desert was a harsh task to do with a team of rookie genin so they went through the Grass, Mud and Earth countries to arrive at their destiny.

The journey there was uneventful, usually bandits and common people stayed out of a ninja team's way because being affiliate to a village in official business meant they had access to back up in case someone got funny with them, only people very confident tried their luck with a team from one of the large villages or a team from another village that also had the required support in case of need.

Team Asuma plus Naruto arrived to the Kotamo Town at the expected date, the major was happy to see them because their presence was very important to the auctions and that event was one that provided a large source of income to the village every year, they invited only the most influential people in close countries so the exact location was an information known by few, not all of the leaders and important people came but most of them sent some emissaries in case there was something their masters wanted, when Asuma saw the amount of people with ninja bodyguards he began thinking this might be too much for his team, any person could come in person or send a representative and any participant of the auction could have two bodyguards, the people needed to have their face uncovered and they were not obligated to wear their respective headbands, actually they asked the Konoha ninjas to take them away the moment they entered the village to avoid suspicions of favoritism, the Sarutobi could see this moved a lot of money, mostly illegal money and people very powerful came here.

The jounin leader was asked to check the installations for any kind of hidden trap or device while his genin team was staying at their hotel, it was information too sensitive to share it with them so early, their job was to guard the two doors that allowed the access to the venue and to report anyone suspicious to their team leader or the security managers who were missing ninjas the major trusted after working for him during many years.

Due to the large amount of foreign people gathering in town, they had a lot of stores, attractions and food stands prepared, the whole city thrived thanks to the money the auctions provided so all of them worked towards the same goal, this captivated Chouji's stomach and Ino's desire for nice clothes so both of them checked on the market as often as they could, Naruto and Shikamaru on the other hand did some surveillance, both of them realized with all the money and wanted objects around problems were just around the corner and they preferred to be prepared when the things went south

….

..

At the day of the event, the genin were at the doors, receiving and checking the invitations that allowed the people to enter at the place where the auction would be held, most people were wearing formal clothes, some with robes others with suits but in the end, it seemed money was abundant in this place

Shikamaru had a bad feeling about this, it was a very secretive event based solely on the fact the Hokage wasn't aware of a gathering as large as this where at least four hundred of the richest people in the world met, they were banned from bringing visible weapons but they weren't checking with other methods, the Nara was practically waiting for something to happen but so far everything seemed to be in order, he was guarding a door with Ino hoping to protect her if necessary while Naruto was with Chouji on the other gate, the Nara genius didn't know much about Naruto but he was able to tell the blond was a serious ninja, had more power than them and also had a good head on his shoulders so he trusted the blond to protect his best friend if necessary.

Asuma on the other hand was in the presence of the event organizer watching the safety vault, all the items were kept in a hidden vault underground whose access was hidden from simple view, the place where the auction was held changed every year but they prepared the place accordingly a couple of months before, the organizer's employees would actually take the objects from there to the auction room, the jounin would be the person in charge of receiving the payment and delivering the product to its final buyer, after checking for the tenth time everything was alright the auction organizer walked with Asuma to the main hall, there he greeted all of the assistants and thanked them for being there, also he said he expected everyone to get what they truly desired from his event so they could go home happy with their new possessions.

Just after Asuma and the rich merchant left the place a man cursed behind a wall, he was sick of waiting for them to leave, he hated waiting and losing his time with every fiber of his body but this time he had a mission to fulfill and his feelings could be put aside for the sake of the mission.

Some minutes passed and the merchants and bodyguards were called to the auction room, they took their respective seats and waited for the event to start, the leader of the event introduced Asuma as his own personal bodyguard and the person in charge of getting the money and delivering the goods, making sure everything was in order, in past versions some people tried funny things but after very cruel paybacks they stopped trying that to avoid retaliations from the other people who didn't get the chance to acquire what they desired.

The first item was a rare belt supposed to be made by the first feudal lord of the Earth Country, it had a large black jewel on its center and passed through many generations in that dynasty, quickly some people raised their hands manifesting their interest of the object, two men competed to get it until one of them gave up and allowed the other to get the belt, the other people in the room applauded the first victorious man of the night and one of his bodyguards walked along him carrying a large briefcase with the money. They got to Asuma's position and the leaf ninja checked the money to be sure the amount was the same he offered, then they called one of the workers to get the belt but after two minutes nobody came with the item. The organizer got a little nervous and ordered more of his people to get the item and check what was happening in the first place until a blond man appeared, he wore a black robe with red clouds and had a mechanical device on his left eye.

"Who are you!? What is the meaning of this!?" asked the organizer using a very loud voice, there was a lot of money involved in this event and he would use all his influences against anyone who dared to cross him.

The blond man walked towards the organizer and Asuma got between them quickly "My esteemed people from all around the world…I've been asked to thank you in the name of Akatsuki for your selfless contributions to our goals…and…art is a bang!" said this blond guy popping a white figure out of nowhere and throwing it to the center of the room, the Sarutobi among other ninjas were able to pick the amount of chakra it emitted and realized it was bad news, he searched with his eyes and saw his genin team gathered at the main door, the four of them were together but the distance between them was too large because this would be released in less than a second.

Akatsuki's agent Deidara did a single hand seal before shouting "Katsu!" and the white object he threw exploded in the middle of the room, generating different reactions among the people there.

"Sealing: release!" Shikamaru heard Naruto say before everything went black around them, a strong tremor was felt at their feet and both Ino and Chouji began feeling insecure in the darkness.

"Naruto, what is this?" asked Shikamaru trying to get a hold of the situation

"It's a portable bunker I've created and sealed in my scrolls, it has many barrier seals so it's highly unlikely it gets damaged by the explosion" explained Naruto

"We need to meet Asuma and get the hell out of here!" stated Shikamaru trying to rally his other two teammates who were affected by the darkness and all the cries of pain and despair around them

For the first time in his short life Naruto had no idea what to do, if he dropped the bunker he risked being exposed to the man who produced the powerful explosion but if he didn't release the barrier they would not be able of finding Asuma…God, what should they do….

"Naruto!" shouted Shikamaru trying to assess the situation

"Shikamaru do we drop the shield?" asked the blond making Shikamaru doubt, the Nara kind of believed Asuma as a jounin was able of anything but deep down he realized he was only a skilled and experienced ninja just like many others out there, it was possible they faced a problem he wasn't able to overcome

"We need to get Asuma-sensei" said Chouji regaining his composure, Ino was also getting there and with his whole team there he felt a little more confident

"Naruto…the man that attacked the auction was alone, he could be working with more people but we just need to stop him for a moment until we meet with Asuma" stated the Nara getting a nod from the blond Uzumaki.

"Okay, I'll get Asuma while the three of you make some time" replied Naruto who didn't know about them but he knew some general information about the Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka clan's techniques, also using his chains he would be able to extract the jounin from a medium distance. He dropped the bunker scroll to the ground and shouted "Fuuin!" before re-sealing the protective dome in the paper.

They weren't ready for what they saw, around them it was all destruction and death, people lying around heavily wounded, some of them missing some body parts, other ninjas were in better shape trying to help someone and a couple seemed to be fighting the blond guy who set the explosion but he used even more exploding techniques to take them down, he looked around for Asuma and found him with some burns on his face, he seemed to be covering the merchant in charge of the auction with his body but whatever he did to protect himself left half of his body exposed.

The blond moved a couple meters from his teammates in order to divide the bomber's attention in case he went for the leaf's ninjas he would have to pick one of the two sides, using his chains he dragged both their captain and the client to his position while Shikamaru and Ino had their hands ready to perform their clan techniques, at this moment the blond guy was fighting one of the bodyguards but from time to time he sent some explosives around the room at some survivors.

Shikamaru saw a blur behind him that triggered his next movement "Kagemane no jutsu!" said the Nara as a reflex before his attention was on the enemy

"Shikamaru, don't! That is a puppet!" shouted Naruto who knew a little more than the basics of puppetry.

The Nara heir trapped the newcomer with his shadow and while his movement were indeed restricted, it was just one of many puppets, a moment later a new one came from his opposing side but fortunately for him, Asuma was able to destroy it throwing one of his special knives at it.

Naruto looked around to see the puppeteer controlling the dolls but he wasn't in sight, cursing on the inside for how wrong things went in this mission he created five doppelgangers, the original used his chains to gather his teammates, first Ino and Shikamaru, then Chouji who was heavier and required more focus, on the meanwhile one of the copies went towards the bomber to throw some fire techniques and draw his attention, the second clone used the same fire techniques against any puppet on sight but more than destroying them, he wanted to be the focus of their attacks while the other three bunshins stood around the original guarding them from attacks.

When the real Naruto was bringing Chouji closer, one of the copies saw two people raising their hands at his direction, they probably were asking for help so he used his own chains to drag them at their position, he knew what the real was going to do and that would not be a problem.

At the moment all the leaf ninjas plus the client and the two people one of the clones gathered Naruto released a new artifact, the eighth version of his chariot but it was more like a tank than a chariot, it was heavily covered in metal, had the capacity to hold up to ten people and while the first versions had pedal systems, this used a chakra based engine much similar to the one his flying machines did, the blond placed his two hands on the switches and the wheels on both sides started to move, the blond bomber was going to give chase but his partner called him.

"Let them leave…we have more important things to do" said the puppeteer pointing at the people lying around, this operation main goal was to gather resources for their organization and the people they attacked had lots of money with them so with some luck most of the briefcases endured the explosions Deidara set in that place.

The Konoha's group moved forward without doubts they just wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the auction place, after thirty minutes of travel Asuma stated he wasn't able to feel any kind of chakra signature from the two people attacking the auction so Naruto stopped and opened the vehicle, he sent two clones to the outside and after they confirmed the coast was clear the rest of the ninjas came to the outside, no city or town was visible and that meant they had to talk among each other to take a decision.

In these talks the leaf ninjas found the people rescued by Naruto's doppelganger were a niece of the Earth country's feudal lord and one of the Tsuchikage's bodyguards called Akatsuchi, the merchant was also grateful for their help despite not being able to fulfill the original mission, they saved his life in a very chaotic situation where they could have left him to die there, Akatsuchi said he remembered somethings about the place they were in and informed everyone there were two close cities, one towards Wind Country and the other closer to Earth Country, Shikamaru looked at Asuma and the jounin seemed to be in pain but without serious injuries that could risk his life.

"I think we should part ways…my team and me should go to the wind country as it's Konoha's ally after all and the lot of you can travel towards Earth Country to avoid any kind of international misunderstanding, it would be highly unfortunate to be saved from dying in the middle of an enemy attack to be captured by people blinded by hatred" said the son of the third Hokage who was aware of the bad blood between Leaf and Rock ninjas since the last war.

"it's sad to hear that but I believe you're totally right…I think I'll be able to escort these two gentlemen to my country, but I'll forever in your debt Asuma Sarutobi…Uzumaki-san" replied Akatsuchi with a formal bow

The merchant thanked Asuma while the feudal lord representative also thanked Naruto, both men coming from earth country promised Naruto their respective leader would know about this and maybe it could be a first step to a better relationship between both nations, the blond smiled and bowed in return, thanking them for their kind words but the truth is he didn't know why he did that, a part of him believed technology and power were only to help people, while another part didn't thought just acted when he saw two people asking for help, whatever reason it was he was happy with the result.

What started as a very traumatic experience ended as a warm goodbye between the leaf ninjas and the rest of the people who survived that attack, all the genin could say they returned from that place as different people, some got a sudden wake up to reality of the ninja life while other saw how they fared against the dangers of the world out there. After arriving to the closest city, the genin insisted Asuma got some medical treatment, the place didn't have a full equipped hospital but a small clinic would be able to provide some care and much-needed rest for the bearded jounin. The Uzumaki used one of his canine summons to notify the Hokage about the delay in their return and some key events to help him understand and obviously assure him his son was out of danger.

At this point it was inevitable to relieve the events of the last mission, for Ino and Chouji it was very hard to forget the sight they faced when Naruto released the bunker, they had never seen so many corpses and wounded people in the same place, it didn't help they were physically close to them and that same people were the ones they checked some minutes ago. None of them had been able to get any sleep because every time they closed their eyes that image was there haunting their rest, Shikamaru could see his two best friends in the world acting different, Ino was very silent which was wrong on many levels because she usually spoke about everything, and Chouji on the other side was too stressed to think or talk about food which told the Nara they needed help but he wasn't so sure himself about how he felt and he didn't want to impose on his friends.

Naruto on the other hand was frustrated and a little overwhelmed, he never wanted to be a ninja in the first place but this time he had seen some weirdos hurt even one of the jounin sensei and he kind of woke up from the genin-like bubble, he saw their teachers weren't invincible paladins of justice that slayed the bad in the world, no they were just more experienced and skilled ninjas who guided them with those skills and experiences to allow them growing as persons and ninjas, he didn't want to think how he would be freaked out at this moment if Kakashi was the wounded instead of Asuma but the point was the same, if he wanted to be a world-wide known inventor he needed to be able to deal with these kind of thugs, people who had no contempt for the human life or even fear from the great ninja villages to reach their goals ' _Akatsuki_ ' is what that blond man said remembered Naruto, who for some reason believed he would know about them again in the future.

Despite Asuma's protests the genin led by Shikamaru and Naruto insisted on waiting there to allow the jounin to recover from his wounds, the doctor explained he didn't have any serious injury but his organs suffered from the shockwave caused from the explosion and he had medium degree burns on half of his face and one of his forearms including his hand, they could only give him painkillers and lots of water for that hoping the medic ninjas in the leaf village could help him to prevent the tissue from scarring, they doctor also recommended him to wait at least a week before traveling again and the genin took that to the letter.

Shikamaru was starting to see Naruto in a different light, the blond genin was constantly creating shadow clones and using them to patrol the town and its borders, he knew about all the people that entered and left the place and he could swear some of those copies discussed about some seals placed in their surroundings, the Nara saw the Uzumaki as someone he could count on, the blond was very formal and detached with his teammates but it wasn't something against them in particular he believed the blond to be a lonely person who didn't have much experience with peers.

His other two friends were opening a little by this point, fortunately after three days the tiredness was too much for them and the three genin members of team Asuma were able to sleep, from that day forward they were returning to their normal selves little by little, they were still shocked by all that ordeal but now they were dealing with it on their own ways.

After the week of rest and rebuilding the five leaf ninjas left that town thanking to the people who helped them and started their journey back to their home, it wasn't as relaxed as their previous travel but wasn't as silent as the first days neither, Asuma was feeling better and hoped he could get some help for his burns, Naruto considered suggesting the use of some vehicle but decided all of them needed some time to reflect so unless they were in trouble a normal travel back to the village would be more appropriate.

Three days later team Asuma plus Naruto arrived to the village, the jounin suggested going immediately to report the situation at the Hokage office, he was able to see his father relax when he saw him cross his office's door, despite Naruto's words he was worried by his son safety and seeing him alive put his old soul to ease, each of them gave him a verbal report of the mission, the Hokage asked some questions to investigate the men responsible for the attack and put some resources on his auctions but those were tasks for later, now he congratulated all the ninjas involved declared the mission a failure but still assured them they would get the C-rank payment for protecting the client's life and after that he allowed them to leave, stating they would have some free time before their next mission.

At the moment Naruto got his house on sight he saw Kakashi standing there, the copy ninja was worried when one of his dogs appeared on the village so he asked the others and they told him as much as they knew but he still wondered about the Uzumaki's safety, Naruto told him everything and expressed how insignificant he felt in front of the bomber who leveled an entire place full of ninjas and the puppeteer who attacked with multiple weapons without even being visible "How am I supposed to defend from those kind of ninjas?" asked a concerned Jinchuuriki who had seen some of the most dangerous criminals out there and was a little overwhelmed.

"You're not supposed to face them…not at least in the next two to five years, and you should be a lot stronger by then" replied Kakashi trying to calm Naruto but knowing the blond was too smart to fall for that.

"But what if they just decide to screw some other random mission…I realized being a jounin doesn't guaranties anything, some powerful guy can appear anywhere and kill you guys…I…I don't know what to believe…I preferred the dreamland where the jounin teachers were invincible…" admitted Naruto holding his head between his hands and lowering it, he was in a somber mood and the copy ninja wasn't sure how to help him out of it.

"I don't know if I should feel sad for you to get that lesson so early on your life or glad nobody had to actually die for you to pick that up" was Kakashi's answer while placing a hand in Naruto's back, he remembered his fist mission as a jounin, he was so young and talented…everyone called him a genius and for a while he believed it but your enemies out there didn't care if you were a genius or not, they just killed you and if somehow you got away they killed your friends…or worse, they tricked you to kill your friends by yourself.

After spending some minutes in that position Kakashi helped Naruto inside his house and shared a light meal with him before leaving, he reminded himself to talk with the Hokage later because the blond needed help and he didn't have that many relationships with other people to be there for him.

….

…

Hiruzen could see with his own eyes Naruto wasn't in his best shape at the moment he opened the door, the Hokage made sure his best doctors assessed his son and reassured him there would be no lasting damage to him other than some minor traces of the burns, he also talked with the bearded jounin and the copy ninja who came to his office two nights ago worried about the genin he saw as his younger brother.

Naruto allowed him to enter and led him to his workshop, the village's leader was able to see lots of paper sheaths tossed everywhere, it was obvious the blond had been working which was a good sign, he was shaken but his spirit was not broken, in Sarutobi's mind an artificer like Naruto was doing the only natural thing he could do when reality overwhelming him, he was working on a machine "I wanted to talk about a couple of things with you so I would appreciate if you sit down" asked the Hokage taking an empty seat and motioning the Jinchuuriki to do the same.

The Hokage looked around and saw so much potential he knew the decision he had taken was right "Naruto, Asuma will probably talk to you in the near future but he's very grateful because it thanks to you that his team is alive" began saying the old man trying to make emphasis on the positive lessons from the last mission.

"I just did the same any other person could have done in the same situation" replied the Uzumaki trying to point it was no big deal.

"Yes Naruto, young Shikamaru could have forced other people to cover them, Ino-san could have controlled someone to act as a shield sacrificing herself in the process, Chouji-kun could also use his family jutsu to protect all of you risking himself…you see in the ninja world there are people capable of great things but just a few of them actually do them" tried to explain the Hokage about the importance of the people that performed the actions because it was actions not intentions that changed the world "When I was much younger our teacher Tobirama Senju was leading a six-man squad under enemy territory until he detected we were ambushed, at that moment it was obvious one of us would have to stay as a decoy holding the enemy forces for the rest to escape, I volunteered for the position without thinking much about it…any of my teammates could have done the same, we were all around the same level in terms of combat capabilities but I was the only who offered to stay…a few seconds later Tobirama-sensei smiled and named me the third Hokage, saying he would be the one to stay behind because it was the duty of the old generations to protect and foster the new ones, that was the will of fire and he saw that trait in me…think about it, any of us could have volunteered and named Hokage…even Shimura Danzo but the one who took a step and did something was me…so don't sell yourself short, Asuma described how you summoned a black dome that protected you and his team, then dispelled it and rescued him, the client and even two random people you didn't even knew…all those qualities would make you Hokage material if you wished to pursuit the position" told the old monkey to Naruto who was listening with his complete focus on the Hokage.

"It was my duty old man…I know I don't have many friends but what is power for if not to help other people?" was Naruto's reply "I never wanted to be a ninja and fight other people, I understand it's important to have the power to protect your work and the people you love but I don't like having to fight and killing other people…I only want to create awesome things that make life better" admitted Naruto frustrated and resigned, the world was a violent place where the strong imposed his beliefs on the rest and it was the only system known for everyone.

"Hashirama-sensei always hoped people would see past their differences and work with each other, he even believed sharing something as powerful as the tailed beast would create a sense of balance and justice but unfortunately some people's greed is more powerful…Jiraiya has always dreamed about people understanding each other through words and ideas instead of fighting, when he was younger he believed his books could be a way to share his views with the world…that's where your name was born but we all know how that ended for his literary goals…Minato…your father died too young, he regretted killing those Iwa ninjas but he was forced to protect what he loved…he had so many plans to establish better relationships with the other villages, he understood power like his got respect from other people and he endured the pain of taking all those lives to create a figure whose words could be really heard by other people…important people but the events related to the Kyubi crushed all those efforts" said the old man with a melancholic face, all of those were good people with dreams of peace, Naruto was still a kid who grew up in the middle of an unfair reality but he felt his heart was the same as those people he mentioned.

"Sometimes I believe you put too much hopes in a kid that doesn't even want to be a ninja" replied Naruto who felt those incredible famous and amazing people were something he could never hope to reach.

"Have you ever stopped to think if I wanted to be Hokage again?" asked Hiruzen surprising Naruto very much "I had not said this to anyone but once Minato took the mantle I hoped to rebuild my relationship with Asuma, spoil my grandsons and have another role in the village, like an advisor but instead he left us and there was no other person with the proper skills and mindset for the job so while anyone could have taken it, I did it…not for my sake but for the village and the people I love... sometimes it's very difficult to send people in dangerous missions where you know they could easily die, sometimes I've been forced to take incredible hard decisions but that is the life we have to live and we can only do our best effort hoping it's enough" added the wise Sarutobi letting Naruto to think for a couple of minutes.

"I need some time off old man…to train…to build new things, I can't keep doing this if every second I have to wonder what will I do if some powerful man decided to attack us" stated Naruto who had many things in mind but needed time to develop them.

"Could you explain to me what are you building this time?" asked the old man curious about what new invention the blond would do.

"I'm reverse-engineering the chakra-armors some people used in the now called Spring Country, it greatly enhanced its user's power so I believe it could be a good asset in combat but it had many vulnerabilities so I need to understand how it works and then how I can improve it" explained the Uzumaki showing the Hokage the damages pieces he had brought from that mission and some of the blueprints he had done the last days.

"Naruto…I have a new proposition for you" commented the Hokage getting the blond's attention because he remembered their first deal "At first I feared if you dropped from the academy and got isolated from human contact you could fall like my old student Orochimaru did but clearly your hearth is much stronger than his, so I have no doubts now. During the last two missions you have done you have shown a good head and a natural talent for leadership along with more combat skills than any genin in the village so you clearly deserve a promotion to chunin but I was thinking about delaying it a couple of months to let you rebuild yourself and your self-confidence…and speaking of rebuilding I want to reinstate the Research and Development Department for many years it worked under Orochimaru's leadership to work in chemical and biological advances to protect our people from enemies' abilities and toxins among other things, if you accept you'll work along with the Torture and Information Department, the Cryptology Team and Jiraiya as the leader of our spy network, you can still work on your own things but you'll be asked for some things that solve problems for the village, you'll have some staff and a couple of laboratories you can equip as you like within a reasonable budget and despite your rank you'll only answer to me and the jounin commander…What do you think?" offered the Hokage taking the blond by surprise, he was just twelve years old and was getting a position in charge of a whole department in the village's organizational system, it was awesome…but he wasn't ready yet.

"Is there any time frame for this offer?" asked the blond who wanted the job but not right now.

"I can only wait your answer for a year, any day beyond that and I'll have to put those resources on something else but we can always keep the business relationship we have right now where you work at your own pace and if I see something that could be useful for the village I'll buy the rights to use it" replied the Hokage with a welcoming expression, he didn't want to force Naruto but he believed it was a very good opportunity for him.

"Okay, I'll take it…In a year…old man, in a year I'll be ready to lead my own department…that's a promise" reassured Naruto giving a handshake to the village's leader.

* * *

Okay, that's the new chapter. I hope you guys liked it

We got to see Naruto in the real world facing threats he was ready for and some he wasn't.

And there is a new challenge for our favorite Uzumaki.

Please leave your thoughts,  
This week and the next I have a lot of work to do, so there is a chance I take a little longer to post the new chapters, please be patient.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello people!  
I'm sorry for taking so long but last two weeks were very busy for me at work.

I'll let you read the chapter, see you at the end!

* * *

Chapter 5 New Adventures

Today we could see Naruto using his hands to control flames that were chasing team Asuma's genin, it had been six months since the moment Hiruzen offered a job to the blond and damn he had been working hard for that.

Since the last mission with them, Asuma and his team had gotten closer to the blond, at first the jounin came to thank him for protecting his team and helping them during the mission, then another day Shikamaru knocked his door saying they were getting a team-meal and he was considered some sort of honorary member of the team so he went along with them.

After that Kakashi came with his team and asked if he could help them training and from that day to the present, Naruto could meet with team Kakashi and team Asuma often to train or just to hang out with them, he was very friendly with Shikamaru who saw him as a person whose mind allowed him to see the potential of things while he had more of a friendly rivalry relationship with Sasuke.

They already knew more about the Uzumaki, especially his style and ambitions, they knew he was far from a normal ninja but that didn't mean he wasn't skilled, on the contrary, he was very talented and determined but he didn't take the same route as most of them, and that was obvious watching his fights, he rarely moved, instead he pushed his opponents with his chains and ninjutsu and when they were too fast or had some sort of hidden ace he depended on his inventions to get him out of dangerous situations.

Right now, he was fighting against team Asuma which was always challenging because of the combined clan techniques the three genin possessed, Shikamaru's and Ino's techniques were dangerous and unconventional so protecting from them was hard, while Chouji's attacks packed a lot of power so he needed to be very aware of his surroundings during the fight. Currently he was using his fire techniques and the light they made as a shield against Shikamaru's shadows, Ino's technique was trickier but he tried creating shadow clones and having them close to substitute himself with one of them in case he felt the mental attack was coming while Chouji's attacks were a little more predictable and he was using an object he had created thanks to Jiraiya's suggestions even before the bunker, it was a portable shield he controlled through chakra strings, it didn't fully stop the meat tank but it was able to slow him down enough to counterattack.

Asuma admired Naruto's ability for reinvention because every week they spared he seemed to be trying some new gadget or strategy against his team, which spoke about how resourceful he could be, the Hokage's son had recovered completely from that hard mission and while the medics were able to fix his face it didn't came completely free, the new skin tissue was different and no hair could grow on it so that meant he would only have half of his beard and so he decided to shave his face from that moment, at first it was weird to see him like that but it was a reminder to all of them that at any moment things could go wrong so they needed to be as prepared as possible and the Sarutobi thanked to be able of living through that lesson because most of time that piece of knowledge came at the cost of a life.

He felt a raise in Naruto's chakra and saw as the blond spread his flames, forcing his team to split, then he used the shield to bonk Ino on the head while he jumped to avoid Chouji's attack, at the moment his feet touched the ground he felt his body get rigid meaning Shikamaru had caught him but he smiled because he was paralyzed holding a bird seal (tori) and after that smirk a powerful wind blew Shikamaru away "You made me use my wind element today" commented Naruto congratulating team Asuma, earning a smile from the jounin and some groans from the genin.

To Shikamaru it was a surprise learning Naruto's main or natural element was wind, because he used fire most of the time but then the Uzumaki explained wind came easily for him and that meant it was easier to defeat someone with it so using fire was a more interesting challenge, obviously against a stronger opponent he would go all out but since that bomber man he hadn't participated in more missions, instead he had devoted his time to train and create new things.

The blond was aware it was in the human nature to build weapons and used them in things you never intended in the first place, so he was very reserved with what he built and usually kept things to himself, Jiraiya was the only person he used to bounce his ideas and talk about the things he created, he knew the moment he led the R&D department he would have to work with more people in teams. Asuma even asked to the Jinchuuriki if it was wise to practice so much his fire element instead of honing his already powerful wind element but Naruto smirked and said since the moment the third Hokage taught him the Shadow Clone technique he was always multitasking which made Shikamaru wonder what that meant and Asuma to guess how many copies of himself the blond had working at every moment.

In the months since the last formal talk between Naruto and the third Hokage, the leaf village had already a total of ten flying machines, Sarutobi wished to create a total of twenty and have eight of them sealed in case of contingency while the others were used to patrol the country and provide support for ninja teams.

A month later Jiraiya came back to the village and the blond was taken to the Hokage's office by an ANBU, the village's spymaster brought two files containing information about the people suspected to be involved in the attack on the black-market auction half a year ago, the Uzumaki was called to see if those were the people he saw and the moment he saw Deidara's file he tensed immediately, it was him there was no doubt of that, the other man…this Sasori was never on sight so he couldn't confirm or deny his participation but the file said he was a master puppeteer, the greatest in the Sand Village…ever, so there was a high chance he was Deidara's partner.

Another topic the sanin wished to discuss was the organization called Akatsuki, he explained them what he heard about and even the fact his former teammate Orochimaru was a member of them at some point, other criminals like Kisame Hoshigaki had been seen wearing the uniform consisting of a black robe with red clouds. What made Jiraiya make a serious effort was the rumor about their goal of capturing the tailed beasts, currently he had no enough information to tell if that was true or not but the sole possibility endangered Naruto so he wanted for the blond and the Hokage to know.

Naruto sit in silence for a moment, it seemed his life was fated to be marked by powerful people coming after him, first his father sacrifices himself to stuff a giant fox in his gut hoping to make him powerful enough to take the people responsible for the Kyubi's release in the middle of the village, then there is a group of people after tailed beasts that would surely kill him to get the fox, if it wasn't so farfetched he could even say those two facts were connected but that….no…

….no…that would….

…that actually made sense!

He could not discard the possibility the same people chasing tailed beasts were behind the attack on Konoha twelve years ago or even some of them, that meant they had a lot of resources and vision to make plans so long-term.

' _Is it really possible to beat a person plotting and planning this for so long?_ ' questioned himself the blond who sometimes thought all his efforts were pointless and he was doomed to fail in the end ' _No, that line of thought will lead me nowhere….It seems I'll have to become a good ninja to face these people_ ' stated finally taking a resolution "If you excuse me I think those were enough revelations for a day, I'll back to work" said the blond getting up and walking to his workshop, he had no time to waste.

Jiraiya watched with worry as his godson walked away from the office, he didn't seem depressed or overwhelmed but it was sad for him to see him like that but the Hokage interrupted him "Don't worry for him…he has the strongest hearth from the village, his drive will not be crushed by some bunch of misfits" reassured the village's leader who had great hopes in Naruto, he saw so much potential in the blond he wanted to make sure it was able to flourish.

…..

..

After telling the new things he found to the Hokage, Jiraiya went to Naruto's place to share some time with his godson who seemed to be in his normal mood thinking and rambling about dozen of possible invention he had in the back of his mind as remote possibilities he could actually make true if he had some piece of knowledge or particular ability, he showed some of his work on the chakra armor to Jiraiya and the man was impressed because it had the potential to boost Naruto's skills by a wide margin.

A couple of days later Kakashi came knocking the door with Pakkun, Naruto had signed the Dog contract many years ago as a way to strengthen the bond with Kakashi and allowing the man to have another way of contact the blond like he did on that unfortunate mission but this time they came over for another reason.

"Naruto, the king stated you were ready to take the first challenge" said Pakkun once both he and Kakashi were inside the house.

This surprised Naruto because while Kakashi explained about all the potential companions he would gain from the Dog clan, the three mythical ones were rare and no one knew what made the Dog King decide you were ready for the task, for the copy ninja he had to lose one of his teammates in order to be deemed ready but he declined, when he met Pakkun the dog was very little, a bit clumsy and very insecure so as they both grew the Hatake ninja promised him he would be his partner and both of them would become skilled in the future, so Pakkun raised as a squad leader and Kakashi as the copy ninja, and despite having the chance to use one of the most powerful dogs he decided Pakkun and the other boys would be the only partners he would need and he was happy with them.

For Naruto things were different and after the recent revelations, he would take any chance to get more power hoping to be ready when he had to face the Akatsuki, that meant going with Pakkun and Kakashi to the Yangtze River the ancestral home of the ninja dog clan.

"Welcome Naruto" greeted the Dog King, a dog that walked on his two hind legs and wore a robe, he looked more like a cleric than a king but all other dogs called him Dog King and despite taking their own decisions most of the time, for the most crucial ones they had a hierarchical structure "As I think Pakkun already notified you…there is a challenge ready for you, will you take it?" asked the leader of the clan looking at Naruto

"Yes, I'll do it sir" replied Naruto who knew a little from Kakashi, they were not informed which challenge they would take nor which dog they would unlock, only their goal was revealed.

The Dog King asked Naruto to follow him and both walked to the base of a close mountain, the home of the Dog Clan was a long and wide river that circled around some mountains, they had access to water and food, with the years they built some temples and utility buildings for these kind of situations, the Uzumaki entered a white room with many sealing arrays on its walls, they shone bright for a moment before sucking all light in the room until there was no left, it was completely dark there, the darkest place Naruto had ever seen or been on.

"Your goal is to find an exit…there are two of them, one that allows you to return home empty handed and the other is the one that'll lead you to Tiangou" explained the cleric-like dog.

Naruto stopped to think for a moment, he heard from Kakashi the myth of Tiangou, he was an ancestral canine who had the ability to fly and supposedly ate the Sun to protect the city of the people that raised him from invaders who were trying to attack them, in the absolute darkness the people of his town was able to surprise the foreigners and force them to go away, since that day other people believed the city was cursed and no one dared to go there, thus allowing the people to live in peace and after many years when the family that took care of him passed away he left the place wondering around the world until he found the River and more of his kin living there, he supposed this test was to see if he was capable of working in the dark because those were Tiangou's powers. He knew the test were meant to check if he was ready not to try failing him but he didn't know if he had another chance in case he failed this one, the lack of information was one of the greatest issues of this test.

Naruto could not see, hear or smell anything there, it seemed like the seals made the darkness suppress other senses too beyond just sight, he tried walking there a little so see if he could get some sort of perception from the room but suddenly he felt a bit of anger and the memory of the bully at the sand box many years ago…he put that in the back of his mind before walking again, he noticed sometimes he got random memories from hard moments in his life that made him feel sad, angry or lonely ' _It seems this darkness brings dark emotions…but they sometimes get stronger and other moments get weaker_ ' maybe that's also part of Tiangou's abilities ' _Then the place free of bad feelings should be the empty exit and the direction that makes me feel worse should be the place where Tiangou is_ ' realized the Uzumaki deciding to go in that direction.

Both Tiangou and the Dog King were able to see what the blond was doing and feeling so they were impressed by the blond for how quickly he had discovered the trick of this test and how he went to a place that brought his worst feelings to the surface, not many people had a will that strong, but the King worried a little with Naruto's strategy because he felt the blond suppressing and repressing his dark emotions ' _it seems as if he was storing them…does he pretend to use them in the future?_ ' wondered after seeing Naruto move forward without much trouble.

After walking for a while Naruto was feeling a great anger to the point it was difficult to keep the Kyubi's power at bay so he moved his hand forward until he felt a warm fur and then the darkness and the anger disappeared, Tiangou was a black dog who stood on his four legs and was as tall as Kakashi, he seemed to be observing him deeply "Congratulations Naruto, it'll be a pleasure to work with you" said the dog and the blond thanked him before petting him, when the blond was younger and first signed the contract Kakashi warned Naruto some dogs don't like to be petted so he should always ask first doing it but the blond never followed that and petted them before anything, fortunately most of the dogs were loyal and had high empathy so they felt the good intentions coming from the blond.

….

..

Naruto was standing along with team Kurenai in front of the Hokage waiting for their mission, Kurenai was a genjutsu master who taught Sakura Haruno, Yakumo Kurama and Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura had a great control and despite not having great physical abilities she was good at learning new things, Kurenai believed she could be a great user of genjutsu or combat medic, Yakumo was the most talented member of her clan ever and her illusions had the capability of becoming reality so she was very dangerous but she also had to deal with a demon created by her second personality that also had the same powers to modify reality and finally Kiba was the muscle of the team, usually she would have a more focused group with Ino or Hinata but the Hokage stated all teams should be well-rounded in case they found some unexpected event that required another set of skills during a mission.

A moment later Anko Mitarashi entered the office and the Hokage began his explanation, they got word from another of Orochimaru's secret operations this time they would raid another base that could be potentially inhabited by hostile elements so team Kurenai had two reinforcements, also it had been eight months since the deal he did with the blond so if he showed enough skills he would promote him to let him lead the new R&D department he wanted to install.

He told them this base was somewhere north in the Water country, the mission was to recover any valuable piece of information or technology from Orochimaru's facilities and finally destroying it, but the priority was coming back alive, their safety was priority but if they could set the Snake back a little all the effort was worth it.

The six leaf ninjas left their home, with the hope of helping to put an end to the traitor's madness, he was a cruel and remorseless man who wronged innocent people to get what he wanted so most of them wanted to do their part to stop him, the only thing that worried Kurenai and Anko was the off chance they met the snake himself, he would destroy them and none of them would be able to stop him from doing what he wanted, their only chance was Anko's seal that acted as a proximity seal warning the woman of the presence of her old master in the surroundings.

Their travel was safe and formal, Naruto interacted mostly with Anko and Kurenai as he didn't know much about the other genin and the genjutsu mistress was interested in some of the details regarding the flying ships the blond had created, Sakura shared this interest but she felt kind of shy speaking to a boy she didn't know so directly but she kind of admired how a boy the same age as she was able to create things so wonderful no one else had thought before.

The intelligence provided by the Hokage specified some places and directions instead of the exact location which was kind of something you would expect when searching for a Hidden Base, the report also said there were rumors of fights and people disappearing close to it so there was a high possibility to find aggressive resistance once they found the place, Water country was weak at the moment because of their inner conflict known as the civil war, probably this was the reason Orochimaru placed a base there because with their focus on the other factions, the ninjas from the Mist Village probably couldn't afford to deal with his machinations. After two days and a half of traveling, they spotted a mountain with a similar look to the one described in the mission scroll so a gathering was called by Kurenai to make a plan.

When they set foot on the mountain's entrance some strange creatures came over them, there were four anthropomorphic things with dark and tough skin growling at them, they looked as if they were humans once but now they were more beasts than human, despite their absent brain processing they were very strong, Anko was able to trap one of them with her snakes and finish him with a kunai, Kurenai also trapped one of them with a distorting genjutsu and killed it with a kunai, Naruto on the other hand used his fire techniques to keep at bay another of them and hurt him slowly before finishing off with a powerful fire breath.

Kurenai's genin had to put a little more effort to fight the fourth and final attacker, Yakumo tried to get it in a genjutsu but her chakra wasn't strong enough to overcome his and Kiba had to move forward and attack him recklessly hoping to get his focus, he had Akamaru transform in him and both of them used the drill-like technique to push him back, Yakumo tried using her illusions to cover Kiba while Sakura fired kunai after kunai aiming for its neck because the rest of its skin was too tough for the weapons to do any damage, after the fifth try she was able to land a good one and they finally took out the rabid creature that attacked them.

After dealing with the welcome party Kurenai gathered everyone and told them to be on alert all time and to warn the group in case they felt something or someone, after that initial reception they should expect anything prepared from Orochimaru so all of them kept their guards up and their reflexes sharp.

Because of the high possibility of finding more of those things they decided to go inside as a unit and it proved to be a good call because more were waiting for them on the inside but fortunately Kurenai and Yakumo were able to slow them down enough for Naruto and Anko to burn them with the fire techniques, both jounin had to admit the blond had a really good set of techniques which was impressive considering his age.

Their operation was going fine, for some reason Naruto felt as if someone was leading them in circles, as if a person was putting enemies in key places to make them go a certain path he or she wanted them to follow, for now they were doing fine but the way those things acted and fought spoke of the atrocities Orochimaru was willing to do for power "I can't wait for the moment when we blow this whole place down" said Naruto representing the feelings of the whole team because despite being successful so far, they were tired.

"Wait!" shouted Kiba when the group turned in a corner

"What's wrong Kiba?" asked Kurenai looking at both directions

"You know Akamaru can detect how much chakra a person has by its smell right?" asked the Inuzuka getting a nod from his teacher "He's scared…he says there is a freak with more chakra than the Hokage in there" explained pointing to a room at the end of their current path, behind a metallic door that was open.

Anko and Naruto looked at Kurenai who was the team leader for the mission, it was dangerous to face such a threat like that but if the avoided it now, it could attack them later when they weren't ready for it…but she had never seen Akamaru afraid before, so maybe she should trust on his instincts.

Unfortunately for her, the decision was made for this monster of a man "UUUHHHAAAAAAGAGAGA" shouted as a madman as he broke the wall separating them with a tackle, this surprised the leaf ninjas who weren't expecting something so sudden "More victims! More toys!" shouted this orange haired man who was only half transformed but had so much chakra circulating through his body it was actually visible to the naked eye, he went for Kiba kicking him out of the way in a movement so sudden the only thing he was able to do was cover Akamaru with his own body.

"Die! Die! Die!" they heard the half-man shout as he threw a hard punch at Kiba, but this time Naruto created a bunch of chains that blocked the attack, when he dashed the man was too fast for the blond to see but if he stayed in one place to hit something the blond could actually get him.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball!" called Anko throwing a fire technique towards their attacked who just shrugged it, quickly the burns healed right before them as he kept hitting the chains in an attempt to get Kiba, when that strategy didn't work he went for the closest person who happened to be Sakura but this time Kurenai reacted and pushed the pink-haired girl away, getting the hit in her place, she was trying to use some illusions on the man but they seemed to have no effect as seemed to happen with strong creatures with no conscious minds.

When Kurenai went down Anko lost her cool and made a thick snake appear, making it circle around their attacker to trap him and land a good hit but he just laughed very hard and threw it away as if it was a damn scarf ' _How powerful is this guy?_ ' wondered Anko before he tried another swing at Sakura, only for it to be blocked by Naruto's chains again

"I WILL KILL YOU!" shouted the now insane man to Naruto who assumed his fighting stance but was unable to do anything when his attacker formed some sort of jet to propel him from his back, connecting a very powerful punch to his face, he was going to strike him again when he called one of his portable shields and blocked the attack, the shield was thrown away but at least it withstood the damage without much problem, the blond thought about the chakra armor but with the guy already on his he didn't have the time or space to put it on so the best choice for the moment was a wind technique, using both hands to make a bird seal he inhaled deeply

"Wind Style: Great breakthrough" shouted as a strong wind came from his mouth blowing the man towards the wall he originally tore down, making another hole on it, but all of them knew it was only a temporary solution as he would certainly raise from that.

The moment they heard his hysterical and mad laugh they knew he was up and despite Kurenai throwing an explosive note and Anko a stronger fire jutsu at the rubble, none of that stopped the man whose skin was getting darker to dash forward throwing Naruto through the wall behind him, before his body broke the wall, the blond used his chains to catch this man, one on each of his limbs a fifth one around his neck and the sixth and final around his waist, he felt a lot of pain with that attack but this not let the chains go "Attack him!" cried the blond the moment he was able to take some air.

Kurenai used a dozen of kunai with explosive notes while Anko fired a dragon breath, both of them landed on the chained man and this time they did some damage but he just laughed harder and got his whole body covered in that dark and thick skin, his eyes were shining and his chakra signature grew at least three times, if they were screwed before now they were doomed, surprised with the change in appearance none of the ninjas did nothing for a while until "Fang Passed Fang!" was heard before both Kiba and Akamaru rushed to their adversary with their most powerful attack, but he just shrugged it off, it didn't have enough power to pierce his skin and the only reason he didn't grab any of them was Naruto's chains.

"I'll not be able of holding him for much longer!" warned Naruto who was already using a lot of energy to contain him, the fact he didn't let him go spoke wonders of the Adamantine Chains from the Uzumaki clan but against a more powerful adversary it was only a temporary measure.

"Kurenai, let's go after his neck!" said the purple haired lady getting her friend to follow both wielding a kunai but at the moment they were close to the now fully transformed beast, he made horns grow from his shoulders, stopping the blades, then he overpowered Naruto's chain with brute strength forcing him to dispel them and kicked Anko away, making her go through another wall and headbutting Kurenai, leaving her wounded and unconscious on the ground.

The sight of his trashed teacher made Sakura and Kiba mad so they pounced on this monster without any plan or precaution, on the other hand the scene made Yakumo freeze, she felt so little and insignificant against this threat that she only wanted to crawl and die in a corner.

As expected the monster tossed Sakura away with a swat of his hand while the other enlarged forming a claw and grabbed Kiba with it "THIS! THIS WAS MY FIRST TARGET! SCREAM!" shouted the man beast as he applied pressure to Kiba.

A heavily bruised Naruto raised, he didn't feel his right hand which meant he would not able of doing more jutsus in the fight, he saw Anko and Kurenai trying to do the same but they were too hurt at the moment, he also saw Sakura trying to regain her foot while Yakumo was paralyzed by fear and Kiba was stuck on that monster's claw ' _We're all going to die if I don't do something_ ' realized the Uzumaki who never expected to face a force this powerful again, he knew the mad bomber didn't show this level of strength but he would be able to at least fight this guy with a better chance of success but this was a beast…an animal that didn't gave them any room for technique or finesse so he pictured the pond on his mind and jumped completely into the water…

….

..

Anko was slowly crawling back to the place where that monster was trashing her team when he felt a new chakra spike ' _great…he had even more chakra to use_ ' cursed on the inside at the monster Orochimaru kept in that base, she looked for Kurenai's form and got a small feeling of reassurance when he saw her trying to pick herself up from the ground, she saw her friend looking at Naruto when she realized she was familiar with this energy

" **STOP HURTING MY COMRADES!** " shouted back Naruto completely covered in orange chakra with three tails on his back.

The monster didn't have time to register what happened when an orange claw sliced the arm holding the leaf ninja, allowing him to be free before another one hit his face, sending him away, without any contemplation for the rest Naruto's transformed form followed after the enemy without even looking back, they could be heard through the sounds of destructions and high powered blows they exchanged, both jounin from the leaf were worried the seal might have broken but at the moment it gave them a chance to escape that deathly trap so Anko took Kiba and Akamaru while Kurenai helped Yakumo out of her stupor and asked her to grab Sakura and together they slowly walked away from that place.

Naruto on the other hand was having a blow-by-blow confrontation with the orange haired monster who was now fully transformed and using all of his power, since Kimimaro no one had carried such power to push him this hard, but this was a good chance to get loose without repercussions, he suspected Orochimaru would punish him anyway for the destruction he was causing but killing this freak would be worth any punishment. The Jinchuuriki only tried to punch his face as hard as possible but the monster was modifying his body on the go, making some shields and hammers with his arms to protect and attack Naruto who was just attacking mindlessly.

….

..

As they fought Naruto, the real Naruto felt as if he was falling deep in a bottomless body of water, slowly reaching some orange place that radiated energy, he didn't feel the dark emotions instead he felt a great numbness and loss of control, as if his whole body was paralyzed and he couldn't do a thing to change what was happening on the outside or to stop his body from falling.

It wasn't a bad feeling but slightly unpleasant, he could feel and see what was happening on the outside but it didn't feel like it was happening to him, it felt like he was in a weird place like a pool and those were images shown from many directions, for a man of curiosity and knowledge like Naruto having control taken from him was something that worried him because he knew his body had a lot of potential for damage and destruction.

This kept going for a long time, it seemed like an eternity to the blond but judging for what was happening in the outside he guessed it wasn't really that long but his time perception must be off in this place…speaking off ' _What is this place?_ ' wondered for a moment as he kept falling.

As he fell he relived some of the sad scenes of his life when he used this part of his mind to store the dark emotions he felt then "Come one…I already had this test…Don't you have something new?" complained the blond to no one else but it seemed boring and pointless to having to pass the same thing he did during the test for Tiangou's cooperation.

After what felt like a complete lifetime he suddenly found himself crashing into the ground, he looked around confused but able to move the mental representation of his body again, he saw a single way so he took it until he saw it…him, a giant orange nine tailed fox behind a cell door, he was looking at him as a predator looks a prey " **We finally met jailor of mine** " said the fox in a deep and powerful voice.

Naruto thought about asking if he was the Kyubi but he didn't know any other giant nine tailed fox so that was pointless, he pondered about asking how he came here but that was also useless because probably this place was connected to the mental representation he had for the power, as he drew power from his dark emotions, probably it was the Kyubi's chakra that powered them so that only left him some possible answers that would actually get him useful information "What do you want?" asked the blond looking at the fox straight in the eye.

" **You're certainly a brave human** " commented the fox amused because this was only a child who was for the first time in his presence and kept a cool head " **The only thing I want from you is my freedom** " was Kyubi's reply

"I may not know you but I've read about jinchuurikis and tailed beasts so I know when a person loses the creature they're holding they die and I also know that if the container dies the bijou also dies for a while until it reforms right?" replied Naruto with a smug face because the damn fox believed he could trick or outsmart him.

" **You're right brat…you might be more than I gave you credit for** " was Kyubi's response before buffing under his breath " **But we're still at an impasse as your exterior is fighting without guidance and your precious compatriots are crawling away exposed to any of the dangers this place has in store for intruders** " clarified the fox feeling he had the upper hand for negotiations with the blond at this moment.

"Then let me out, I'll take care of that freak and protect them" replied Naruto who had just realized the great danger all of them were in.

" **I would love to do that but you see…if you just walk away, you'll lose my chakra and that creature will kill you in the spot** " replied the bijou showing the blond his teeth with a smirk

"Well if that's case you'll have to figure something out because I'm still going out!" finished Naruto before running in the opposite direction to the Kyubi, expecting some kind of exit to this mental representation of the seal keeping the fox trapped inside him.

" **I'll allow what you want this time but the next won't be as easy** " warned the Kyubi before surrounding Naruto with some of his chakra and pushing him away from their mental connection.

Naruto regained his consciousness in the middle of the fight with Orochimaru's monster, he knew his body had taken many hits but he didn't feel any damage at the moment but the same could also be said about his opponent, he moved around and felt incredibly powerful, the power emanating from him was so large it was intoxicating, he decided to copy his adversary and modified the chakra surrounding his hands, instead of two claws he did a shield and a spear and did a feint, making the monster charge to clash only to receive the spear on his shoulder.

The moment he pierced his enemy the blond could see his body seemed to be burning in the places touched by his chakra, maybe the Kyubi's chakra was too strong for people who hadn't been in contact with it during their whole lives, he smirked and took some distance between them jumping back, the mindless monster rushed to attack Naruto when the blond created three red chains with the Kyubi's chakra, they trapped his enemy and burned his skin, causing his to scream very loudly.

With a lot of effort Kurenai and the rest of the team were able to reach the outside of the hidden base when they heard that scream, they knew it wasn't Naruto so it was mildly reassuring but the two jounin feared he might lose control of his own body at this point.

In the fight, Naruto had his opponent immobilized and tortured with his chains, so he decided to end his miserable existence and turned his left hand into a spear again but this time he used to stab him in the middle of the chest going all the way, he retired the chakra-made weapon and stabbed again…and again until his adversary didn't move or screamed anymore, then and only then he tried to let his emotions go and released the Kyubi's energy, losing consciousness instantly.

Ten minutes had passed since they stopped feeling the Kyubi's chakra so Kurenai was starting to worry "Could you go inside and fetch Naruto?" asked to her friend, because she was in best shape after all. Both women felt the chakra from the monster disappear first than the Kyubi's so they assumed Naruto killed him but they didn't know in what condition he was, Anko walked into the building again, the whole place looked as if it was going down at any moment with all the damage the last fight did to its structure, she just had to follow the path of destruction to find two bodies on the ground, one had a large nasty hole in the middle of the chest while the other one was heavily bruised but breathing steadily, his chakra was dangerously low but she suspected he would survive.

Anko picked Naruto from the ground and carried him with a lot of effort to the outside, fortunately they were in a dry place far from the sea that gave his name to the water country so camping in the night was easy and didn't require so many preparations as they were in no shape to collect wood or food from their surroundings, each of them took a sleeping bag and Anko shared hers with Naruto who was still out of commission, both jounin inspected the blond boy who was sleeping peacefully devoid of any trace of the demonic energy that powered him hours ago, Kurenai was afraid the fox might have escaped but it seemed he was just using its power, for the moment the situation seemed controlled but they would have to make sure of that when he awakened.

At the next day, the Jinchuuriki was still knocked out so some of the other team members went to the base to explore it and set the explosives, they were not going to blow the place down until Naruto as the resident expert in science had some time to check it but they could save some time setting the explosion right away in case something happened.

During that day, the team found a red-haired girl hidden in the base, she was under the stairs in fetal position and completely terrified, the genin tried to talk to her hoping to get at least her name but it was no use, she was still in shock. Kurenai had to use a genjutsu that put her mind at ease and made her unable to filter any information, she would tell nothing but the truth. Kiba said that was a powerful and dangerous technique but then his jounin teacher explained it was hard to make a person fall for it if he or she had a strong will and the only reason it worked so quickly was because of how disturbed she was.

With the genjutsu they learnt she was named Karin and worked for Orochimaru, this place was called the Northern Hideout and was the place the snake used for his cursed seal related experiments, she was only supposed to take some samples to other hideout but at the moment Juugo started attacking them she was overwhelmed because she was a powerful sensor ninja and feeling two chakra signatures so large and evil like Juugo's and Kyubi's was too much for her, she even considered taking her own life but didn't have the courage to do it. Juugo was the name of the man-beast that attacked them and Karin explained he was the original owner of the power Orochimaru used to create the advanced levels of the cursed seal, Anko probably didn't have that essence but the others did allowing to their carriers to access a similar state to the transformed Juugo when fighting, this piece of information worried the leaf ninjas because Juugo was able to easily overpower two jounin level ninja and it took a half-released bijou to stop him.

Anko interrogated her some more to get information about Orochimaru's operations and the girl told them all what she knew about her master, in the end they applied a suppression seal to keep her from using any chakra and then bound her with ninja wire, one of the genin would watch all her movements but even she had said her physical skills were his weak point so it wasn't so much of a danger to leave her be.

Naruto woke up at the fourth day, just when Kurenai was starting to get worried for the blond, the genin were happy to see him and thanked him for saving them from that monster while Kurenai and Anko looked at him with caution "You don't have anything to worry it's just me" reassured the Jinchuuriki making the jounin relax and the genin very confused, then Kurenai explained about the hideout and how they were waiting for him to explore it before tearing it apart, Anko informed him about Karin and Naruto was really surprised to find she was also an Uzumaki.

Said girl was back to her normal mental state after the genjutsu was dispelled and first tried to bribe them but Anko informed with a cruel smile she had already told them everything, then she insulted them and when she got tired of being ignored she decided to resign to her fate and accept what was coming, at the moment Naruto was on his feet she expected the same raw, evil and primal energy she felt during his fight with Juugo but instead she felt a calm and collected individual who exuded curiosity and creativity, she could still feel the other power on his inside so deduced he must be a demon container, from the raw power she suspected the nine tailed fox but had no way to be sure, the blond saw the girl was secured with suppression seals and ninja wire so he asked Kurenai if he could take her to be hideout to explore it and the woman thought about for a moment only allowing it if Anko also went with them, Naruto agreed to those terms and finally the three of them returned to the inside of the hidden base.

The blond found a lot notes and information regarding the curse seals, he theorized with some time to study this he should be able to device a seal that countered them and prevented the user from using its power, he wasn't sure if he would be able to remove it but freeing Anko from said mark made it something he should at least consider in the future.

Orochimaru was more versed in the human biology than Naruto ever will so his research wasn't that useful or interesting to the blond, still he took every piece of paper he saw for future references and even grabbed some metal samples, the doors in Juugo's room were something incredible strong so he wanted to study the composition of the material, nothing else was considered useful for the blond so he decided it was okay to destroy this place and leave no trace of it.

The return to the village was slow because Karin had her chakra suppressed she had to travel as a civilian and no one was really in shape to carry her, Naruto was still recovering his chakra, Anko had some minor bruises but his body still was in pain, Kurenai had a few broken ribs, Kiba had broken one of his and his shoulder was dislocated while Sakura had broken his cheekbone and her face was swollen, the only member physically fine was Yakumo who felt incredibly ashamed of herself and was seriously considering giving up on being a ninja or trying to focus on his clan for example in fear of facing another enemy like the last one.

Five days later the group of six leaf ninjas plus a prisoner from Orochimaru's base were in front of the Hokage office, he saw the state all of them were at the moment, even Naruto seemed to be in a rough spot so he asked the two jounin to explain the events happened during the mission, first Kurenai explained their journey and the thought process behind their actions at the hideout then the moment the enemy whom later they would find was called Juugo attacking them by surprise and their hard fight against him. Anko focused on the fight and how that monster was capable of enduring all their attacks and regenerate as if they were nothing, he even trashed Naruto and Kiba before the blond used his whole powers and saved the day.

Sarutobi asked them about the girl and Kurenai informed him she had already been interrogated at the hideout and all the information they got was in a scroll which she handed to the village's leader, said man called a couple of ANBU agents who took custody of Karin and escorted to the T&I department, she was not a ninja that worked and killed for Orochimaru so she would not get she same treatment an enemy would get but they would need to ensure she told them everything she knew regarding the snake sanin.

After reading the documents given to him by Kurenai about the mission details and Naruto about the information gathered at the hideout the Hokage took a deep breath and congratulated all the ninjas, he thanked them for their efforts and assured them they would be paid the equivalent of an A-rank mission for the enemies they fought in the battlefield, he asked them to get the medical attention they needed but when they were starting to move he told Naruto to wait a moment.

"How are you feeling Naruto?" to my knowledge that is the first time you interact with the Kyubi

"I don't really feel any different" replied Naruto "Maybe I haven't processed the whole ordeal yet but I don't feel anything…As long as I can remember I've pictured a pond in my mind…I know this pond represent the dark emotions I've experienced during my life because instead of face them most of the time I ignored them and stored them…two times I've came to this pond placed my hand on the inside and got some of the Kyubi's power…this time I jumped into this pond, the experience was unpleasant but in the end I only did it to fight that Juugo guy who was tearing us apart, he came to us so suddenly I wasn't able to use any of the tools I normally carry with me…no bunker, no traps…I think I only managed to use a shield but he wielded such a primal and pure power that I got a little frightened and deep inside a part of me thought the only possible solution was to match his power…so I did" explained the Uzumaki recalling the events of his last mission.

"Did the fox asked for anything in return?" questioned the Hokage who was curious with the nature of the interaction between Naruto and the Kyubi.

"At first he wanted to intimidate me but when that didn't result he threatened me saying if I returned to the world leaving him there, his powers would stop flowing through me so I called his bluff and told him if to figure something out if he didn't want to die along with me because I was going back no matter what…in the end he laughed and said he would help that time but I don't know what does that means for the future" told Naruto repeating the exchange he had with the nine tails fox "At first my body was fighting in autopilot…as my conscious self was wandering about the mindscape shared with the fox, something animal fought Juugo…it wasn't the fox either because I didn't feel his influence in my mind but then when I was able to wield its powers fully conscious I could feel some of his influence at the back of my mind…the amount of power it granted me was off the charts but it's very difficult to keep a clear head…that power it's intoxicating and its words seem like the most logical course of action despite being filled with nothing but violence and destruction" added the blond with a hand on his forehead.

"Naruto I'll be honest with you" began the Hokage making Naruto look at him with curiosity "I sent the six of you to that mission knowing there was a high chance you would find some hostility from Orochimaru's men, so you could perform well and get a field promotion to chunin" told him surprising the blond who didn't expect the good old Hokage was able of gambling like that with the wellbeing of his subordinates "However I never expected such a powerful underlying fighting you guys, but I believe this serves us well because readying the reports and hearing your story now I believe you should be promoted to Tokubetsu Jounin with Fuuinjutsu and Research as your fields of specialization and after defeating that monster which will soon be known for the majority of the jounin no one will question this promotion" finished the Hokage presenting Naruto a scroll with the official stamp to certify his new position in the ninja ranks.

He knew what was the reason behind this, the R&D department he wanted to install in the village, and Naruto wanted that position but he didn't feel he was at jounin level yet, he felt completely outclassed against jounin level threats as Juugo or Deidara and didn't want to the responsibility of having to face such opponents just yet "I don't know what to say old man…I don't think I'm ready" replied Naruto surprising the Hokage who had never seen him being that humble before.

"Naruto my boy, you don't have much experience but you must know there are in my opinion four kind of ninjas, first there is the typical well rounded ninja, he has general knowledge about most of the arts and is well versed in at least two different styles, they make most of the ranks and while they make very good ninjas they don't usually shine much, then we have the specialists, they usually devote themselves to a single particular field and become experts in that area, as you probably are guessing Anko and Kurenai are specialists, Anko specializes in infiltration and killing efficiently, her style exploits weak points in the human body and is very lethal, Kurenai on the other hand is the most talented non-Uchiha genjutsu user in the whole village they are very good in their field but their problem is when their area of expertise is not useful against an enemy like Juugo, they become an easy target and that is the reason some people says overspecialization is dangerous as you should always have some backup plan, then you have a third kind of ninja, the powerhouses, they are brutes with power levels who are unmatched by other ninjas, Juugo is a good example but from our ranks Jiraiya, your godfather is another good example, he is able to use incredibly powerful techniques and with all the experience he has, he has developed a deadly style as some people says you can never have too much power but the problem with these ninjas is that sometimes they get too reckless, you can't always solve your problems or win your battles with more power" explained the old man before taking a pause to breath and think about his loyal student who started his journey as a fool and became a legend.

"And the fourth kind?" asked Naruto very curious

"The fourth is the most dangerous because they are the geniuses, the specially gifted or monsters…they challenge the rules and can be anything they want, there has been some well-rounded geniuses like the Second Hokage who was very skilled in water ninjutsu, kenjutsu and research, then there is your father who was a genius fuuinjutsu specialist who became so fast that no man could oppose him and finally there is the genius powerhouse like the first Hokage who was able to use his Wood Style to create entire forests as if he was just doing a light workout, you're still young so you can be any kind of ninja you want but I believe knowing your type is important to develop a style that cover your weaknesses and strengthens your capabilities" explained the old man making the Jinchuuriki think "You might not be a regular jounin level ninja in terms of combat skills but the only way to solve that is becoming stronger" assured the Hokage before ruffing Naruto's hair and telling him to get a medical checkout.

The blond went to the hospital lost in his thoughts, he had a scroll that said he was now a jounin yet he didn't feel a the same level of the rest of the village's jounin, even those like him who weren't full-fledged jounin had battle experience and a wide repertoire of tricks, he only had some fire and wind techniques, most of his inventions weren't for combat and he still hadn't been able to test the chakra armor he had created from the Spring-country prototype.

* * *

Well? I hope you liked it

As you can see from the words of the Hokage I believe those are the four kind of ninjas the original serie present us, I believe most ninjas can be classified into one of these groups.

In this chapter we got to see almost full-power Naruto but at the moment that means using the Kyubi's chakra at his maximun current capacity, I know Juugo is a powerful ninja who echanged hits with the Raikage but I believe a Kyubi-powered Naruto can defeat him using more than just his fists.

As the last paragraph suggest Naruto will have a chakra armor, actually it was one of the first things that came to my mind when i thought about this story in the first place, so I hope you like how that goes.

As usual I ask you leave your thoughs or any constructive criticism in the reviews,

See you next week (hopefully)


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 New World**

Naruto was walking with his hands on his pockets and a smile on his face, he was going to the Hokage's tower for a meeting as he had been doing since the last six months, he remembered the first meeting when the old man introduced him in front of the clan leaders and civilian representatives.

Flash Back

The third Hokage had started the weekly meeting of the great council of the leaf village, there was a central round table with the clan heads, in front of them there were some seats with the different leaders of the many departments and administrative structures in the village and around all of them some places for the people who represented the civilians in the village.

As usual Hiruzen greeted everybody and thanked them for taking their time to be present for the meeting, he did a quick introduction regarding the events happened in the village since the last meeting and a general count of the missions finished during the same period, this allowed for the people to assess the current economy and workforce the village had.

Kazuki was a talented Uchiha, he was four years older than Itachi but during the talks regarding the coup he was just a chunin so he was not involved, the new Uchiha clan leader appointed him as chief of the Uchiha Police because he was a hard worker man who was very strict with himself and the others so he could be an exemplar leader, as expected Kazuki took his job seriously so before explaining his weekly report he could't help but ask "Hokage-sama may I know why is Uzumaki-san here?" questioned the police chief who didn't have anything against Naruto but from his viewpoint he was going to share sensitive information and he was just a regular member of the ninja ranks.

"Well I was going to inform all of you later but since a long time I've wanted to rebuild the Research and Development Department" informed the Hokage making some people flinch remembering the dark experiments developed by Orochimaru "and since yesterday the Special Jounin Uzumaki Naruto is its new director" added Sarutobi getting a lot of reactions from the assistants, some were surprised, some were curious, other muttered about the rumors from his last mission and others were against him having a position of power in the village but there was little they could do.

"Lord Hokage, are you sure that's wise?" asked Koharu, one of the village elders and advisor of the Hokage, she didn't hate Naruto but she was a strong believer the Kyubi should be trained as a weapon to protect Konoha and as such other things like this department were only a distraction from that noble purpose.

"Yes Koharu, young Naruto here created the Flying Devices that patrol and protect our country and our ninjas, he also improved the barrier that surrounds our village and is the creator of many useful inventions no one had thought before so I believe the village could benefit from his work" explained the old man to justify his decision, he was absolutely aware his word was final but he thought it could lead to less conflicts in the future if he pointed some of the things Naruto did as his resume for the position he was going to assume.

"Hokage-sama if you allow me a few words" asked Naruto getting a nod from the man "I'm perfectly aware about my age and lack of experience but as the Hokage explained I've created some innovative things in the past and expect to make more in the future, if you have some idea or you believe there are things that could be improved in the village my door will always be open for you, the same if you or a friend want to work creating and studying new things, I have a couple of available spots…in the end all of us want to make Konoha a better and safer place" added the Uzumaki before bowing and thanking them for the time.

The Hokage congratulated him and then Kazuki did his report and the meeting went as they usually did, Naruto could easily pick some people wasn't happy with his new job but none of them would make a scene in front of the Hokage, some people were against him because of his status as a Jinchuuriki while other people were against the position due to the things Orochimaru did but the Uzumaki had no blame for either of those so he decided to ignore them and let his work speak for him.

End Flash Back

During the first week, he just examined the facilities provided by the Hokage assessing what could be useful to him and what needed to be discarded, the desks, tables and files seemed to be in good shape but the rest of the stuff seemed to be past its expiration date, too much biology focused or just broken so Naruto did a list of things he needed in order for his department to operate.

The Hokage gave him an approximate budget and told him he could hire two people, depending on the work they did and how necessary they proved to the village as a whole, he left an open door to increase his staff or his funding in the future but for the first year they would have to work with what they had already assigned.

In these months the blond traveled to many places to get the materials he required for his facilities, he went to the wind country to buy some minerals and glass because they sold the best quality ones, then he traveled to the earth country to get different metals from there, they were supposed to be the best after the iron country but this one didn't use to trade with the ninja villages so he would have to ask for an appointment in the future if he wanted samples of their metals, then he went to the lightning country to buy chakra detector materials and to the water country to buy containment cells, they were the expert in detention and isolating devices so he traveled there.

During these travels, he met a lot of people and they seemed interested in his work so most of them asked to be informed when he did some scientific breakthrough.

In the meeting he was asked to give a brief report of his work so he explained his department was working to create a metal that was more resistant hoping to use it in the detention cells and even reinforcing the village's walls if possible, no one asked anything but Naruto could easily see some people still were against him but they would have to get used to his presence there.

The blond didn't pay much attention unless it was something that could be related to him but so far that had not been the case, at the end of the meeting he returned to his laboratory quickly because he was really interested on his work, Karin as usual was waiting for him at the door holding a sheet of paper with the results of their lasts experiments.

After returning to the village with Karin, the Hokage had her questioned at the T&I department, they were told to not inflict any damage on her but to get all the information she had so Ibiki had to work his magic with her, she was scared from the man but other than that she was fine. In the end the Hokage found she used to be a ninja from Taki but they never appreciated her, so when Orochimaru offered a position of respect where people would not abuse her power she quickly accepted the offer, the fact she didn't have the cursed seal or wasn't a fighter who killed in Orochimaru's name made things easier so she was left in freedom with a three months period where she would be followed and observed, if no one deemed her suspicious she would be allowed to roam completely free and do as she pleased.

Naruto felt some kind of empathy towards his fellow Uzumaki clan member, so he asked the old man to make her work in his department as she already had experience working as a scientist but the Hokage told him she could only do it after the probationary three months so when all the caution measures were lifted from her the blond offered her a job and she took it.

His other worker was Shiho a very methodical and smart girl who used to work as the cryptology branch of the T&I department.

When the blond got into the laboratory he found Shino testing a metal bar with a lightning device, but all this work started with the sample he got from Orochimaru's northern hideout, the metal doors holding Juugo's cell were something incredibly resistant. Naruto knew from very child that when exposed to chakra, metal can become more resistant and even sharper so he theorized the opposite could also be true, there could be metal that is resistant to the application of chakra and this door had a very low reaction to chakra so he believed it was a step in the direction he wanted.

For Naruto forging metals was a way to customize his creations but with time he found about the specific minerals that composed the metal and the different properties they provided to the final product so from that moment he liked to decompose and analyze all the small components that formed a material, there were many minerals in the door he took from Juugo's cell and now he and his team were studying the responses each of these minerals had when applied chakra to see which one was less affected by it.

As much simple as this could sound, it wasn't so easy because in the metal composing the door there were more than ten different minerals and Naruto had a theory that it wasn't a single one that provided the Chakra Resistance as he called it but instead it was a mix of them so they needed to find the right ones and their proportions to create the best one.

…..

..

Thanks to the people he had working for him, the blond Uzumaki was able to spend some time working on other projects, one of them was close to being finished so he was looking for a chance to a field-testing session, he would probably ask the Hokage to give him some missions that involved some danger in the future.

Some hours later Karin came to remind him of their appointment with the Hokage and Anko, thanks to the information Karin gave them and the samples collected from Juugo's corpse, both Uzumaki had been able to crack Orochimaru's cursed seal, the girl created an enzyme that made the immune system attack any cell with Juugo's molecular markers, this was a critical point because if a person who was marked with the seal a long time ago or its influence had spread too far, the cellular damage they would suffer would be colossal, even lethal, so Karin was going there to ensure Anko was kept alive, although Naruto and her theorized as the purple haired woman never used that thing or evolved it from its starting level, it shouldn't have spread so much.

The Hokage was going to oversee the whole procedure as a judge to determine if things worked well or that's what he told everyone when he only wanted to see with his own eyes the work of his student undone, he theorized with Naruto that if removing Orochimaru's cursed seal was possible, the same could be said from the branch side of the Hyuga and Naruto promised to look into that issue after finishing this.

The four ninja were alone in the medical facility reserved for the Hokage on the inside of the tower, the room was surrounded by two full squads of ANBU ninjas but on the inside there were just the four of them with many seals that isolated the room from the outside "Mitarashi-san I need for you to undress from your waist up" instructed Naruto pointing at Karin who was offering to help with her clothes as a way to let her open in front of another woman.

Anko was feeling a lot of emotions, after the mission when that orange haired monster trashed her and the rest of her team, she had some little hope they were able to found a cure for the cursed seal, but after watching so many experiments she lost a bit of that hope, then the Hokage informed Naruto was working along with Karin in their new department to engineer a solution for the cursed seal, the Hokage knew Naruto meant well but he was also aware its true purposes were to dispose quickly of Orochimaru's marked ninjas, the blond seemed to take very seriously the danger he was exposed at during the fight with Juugo and decided he would never allow another of those monsters hurt him or someone from the leaf. When she was taking her clothes off she thought about making a joke but the Hokage was very serious and Naruto was even wearing a white lab coat, he seemed very professional and after what she saw him do during that mission she started feeling the blond was someone she could trust.

It was unavoidable for her to feel a little anger at her master, she trusted and loved that man, he became her entire world for a long time and he used her and then tossed her away, discarded and abandoned and sometimes she wondered if her mind would be so warped around his will if she would have stayed with the snake, she had seen during these years people commit atrocities in his name out of pure devotion, any rational person would realize that was madness but they still did it nonetheless…would she…wild and free Anko be another pawn under Orochimaru's will if the snake hadn't dumped her…that would be a hard question, she heard something and Karin was looking at her as if she was expecting an answer "What?" questioned her who clearly wasn't paying attention.

"I was explaining the procedure…" repeated Naruto adding on his mind ' _but it seems you didn't hear a thing_ ' before taking a deep breath.

"I was already told about it, you inject something in me, then take the mark away" said Anko oversimplifying the whole ordeal she would live in mere moments

Naruto placed his hand on his forehead frowning "That's too simple to be called an explanation, well as I told lord Hokage, Karin will inoculate you with a serum designed to force your immune system to attack any cell with the same markers as Juugo' then I'll purge the mark with my own chakra overloading the mark and destroying it, there is a chance the seal might try to prevent us from doing that so you'll have to be restrained and it's also possible you experience past events of your life or some strong emotions towards Orochimaru or any of us so we need your final consent to this now that you're still rational" explained Naruto with a lecturing expression Karin found kind of cute.

"Yadda, yadda take it away boy" replied Anko ignoring him on purpose ' _I don't care about risks or consequences_ ' thought the brave woman when she was being tied to the operating table in a sitting position.

Naruto looked at his relative and nodded, she injected Anko with their serum and as expected her body quickly heated giving her a strong fever, it was a clear sign that things were working as expected so the same red haired Uzumaki put an IV in Anko to keep her hydrated and help her body fight the infection, they were monitoring her vitals in case something happened and she needed an urgent medical treatment from Karin.

After an hour she seemed to have stabilized, her body was still in fever but not so high so the blond decided it was the moment to do his part of the procedure, he did a long list of handseals before placing his hands together "Seal Overload" the Jinchuuriki put those hands over the cursed mark and the circular mark with tomoes started spinning and spreading all over her skin, the Hokage grew worried with this development because he had gotten reports from this transformation but as soon as the letters and characters appeared on her body, they turned into a yellow color and they looked as if chains were being broken, the characters on Anko's skin were separating from each other as if the words they formed were crumbling, Naruto had explained to the Hokage with a seal that contained chakra, one of the best ways to take it was to fill it with more chakra so it wouldn't be rejected from the beginning but the technique he had developed tried to fill forcefully every union, every corner and every word with foreign chakra trying to interrupt the circuit and null the technique contained in those words, the procedure was working very well until all of them felt suddenly a dark energy, Hiruzen quickly recognized it as Orochimaru's and got alarmed but Naruto raised a hand to stop him, he was considering this possibility but didn't want to tell Anko about it, the seal stored a small fraction of Orochimaru's soul and chakra so he suspected it might attempt to take control of the person performing the de-sealing, he felt a purple energy trying to get from Anko's shoulder to his arm but he quickly focused and channeled some of the Kyubi's chakra to fight it, the fox's chakra had its own will and it was practically impossible for any human to bend it to his desires, the only care he needed to have was to not let him get into Anko's chakra system otherwise she would get a really nasty poisoning or possible dependence to that energy.

When the Hokage didn't feel the presence of his student anymore he knew Naruto had managed to overcome him as a scientist, the blond didn't need power to undo his work, just brains.

In the end the blond stood twenty minutes until he was able to break every piece of the seal and Anko's own immune system managed to destroy the cells infected with Juugo's markers, she lost consciousness because her body convulsed during Orochimaru's attempt but she was sleeping now, the pain had stopped, and she only needed some rest.

The Hokage opened the door and instructed a team of ANBU to carry Anko to the hospital and guard her the whole time 24/7 by at least two agents every time, the only people allowed to enter were Naruto, Karin, himself and a doctor appointed by him. The operatives replied affirmatively before disappearing. Hiruzen looked at Naruto with pride "I'm really proud of all you have accomplished in your short life…I also thank you miss Uzumaki for helping me right some of my student's wrongs" said the village's leader making Karin blush because she was being recognized and thanked for her work instead of being used as an object, Naruto just gave him a thumb up, he was very tired for all the chakra he had to use overcharging the seal.

They kept track of Anko's status during the following week to ensure everything went well and after two days she was already conscious, yet the doctors asked her to rest and stay a few days for observation, she felt a little lighter and very happy with the results so she was in an unusual good behavior.

…..

..

"Naruto, can one of your flying machines hold more people if a person with enough chakra is feeding it?" asked the Hokage to Naruto

"They're designed to keep six people in the sky without much problem so there are only six seats, if being on your feet is not much trouble they can hold a maximum of ten people but the chakra requirements would be high…my ship is capable of transport up to fifteen people but that's because its larger size" explained the blond.

"I see, then they're probably the best choice for the next version of the chunin exams…I've doubted about sending our genin to the Cloud village but this time they're in the Hidden Mist and despite their political instability the Mizukage wants to show a strong village to the world so a neutral place seems like a good chance to our youngest ninjas" explained the Hokage making the blond understand the whole interrogation, he explained his plans to send four teams meaning sixteen people plus some support ninjas in case something happened and the pilot for the second ship would be himself.

The exams would start in a month so usually the journey there with young ninjas like the genin would take around a week, but Naruto was confident his creations could cover that distance in two days, three if they didn't have favorable winds and as the third Hokage wanted to make a memorable entrance and Naruto's ship getting closer in the sky would be just what he felt the other villages needed to remember the result of their past conflicts.

In the meanwhile, he would meet with Naruto two or three times a week to learn piloting and using all the gadgets the machines had at his disposal for changing directions or engaging enemies during their travels.

They agreed Naruto would carry three teams from the rookie genin who had been ninjas for nine months, while Sarutobi would host the other team, Might Guy's, Kazuki Uchiha the police chief and an ANBU team, the blond asked to be allowed to take his team from the R&D department and while the Hokage said it wasn't a field trip the blond ignored him after he was authorized to take them with him, meaning Konoha would send four genin teams plus eight ninjas besides the Hokage.

All the selected ninja who would enter the tournament trained very hard to prepare their techniques and minds for the challenge they would face because it was not only their careers that were on the line but also the village's prestige because their actions resembled on how good the village raised its warriors, most of them were aware of the strained relationships between the ninja villages and the countries that hosted them, after Hiruzen's instruction Naruto gave them the same device for the headbands but it came with a very serious warning, if they were targeted by Mist's ninjas because of their bloodlines or something happened completely outside of the boundaries of the exams they could use it to send a signal but if they used that lightly they would be expelled from the ninja ranks, no matter their age they were soldiers and needed to learn how to follow instructions.

The nine rookies were surprised with the Hokage's speech because they had only known him as a kind old man but the person who spoke to them was clearly a war general.

Four days before the exams two large flying ships left the leaf village among a large crowd, many people congregated to send their best wishes to the young ninjas who would carry and wear the village's name and to see the flying machines very close, usually they were loaded in hidden places before taking up to the skies but this time they were displayed in the middle of the village while the ninjas got on board. Their journey was easy and uneventful, there wasn't much wind and they only stopped four hours each night for Naruto and the Hokage to recover some chakra, being awake and using a constant amount of chakra was taxing even for the Jinchuuriki.

One of the improvements Naruto had made a couple of weeks ago was a periscope, a device that allowed the man flying the ship to see where he was going and Sarutobi saw a lot of people surrounding the place where they pretended to land, the old monkey smirked ' _I still got it_ ' reassured himself imaging the surprised faces of the other village's leaders.

Naruto talked with many people during the travel, he was friendly with team Kurenai, Team Asuma and Team Kakashi. His department members got acquainted with the other ninjas, for the other ship the travel was more formal because of the presence of the Hokage, despite that Guy and Lee were keeping the travel from being a silent one. Most of the genin were marveled at Naruto's inventions he was the same age as them but he was already a special jounin and led a department, despite that he always laughed when people tried calling him a genius, he spent a lot of his time studying, trying some ideas and working on his creations and his skills to reach the point where he was currently, a genius would have been a much easier path but probably that would take some of the motivation away…

When he landed, Naruto had everybody waiting for the Hokage to get from the other machine first, he wanted to be the first person seen in the Mist village although the ships had the village symbols so it was impossible to confuse them for something else, Sarutobi saw Naruto and the ninjas from the other ship walking behind him as they got closer and closer to the crowd awaiting for them, he saw the Mizukage and many of his assassins ninjas, the Raikage A and his brother B, the Kazekage surrounded by four of his ninjas and other people he didn't knew.

"Greetings Mizukage-dono, Konoha is here for the exams" said the old Hokage to greet the man who hosted the exams and ignore the fact he arrived flying on giant vehicles.

"That is surely a nice way to arrive somewhere Hokage-dono, I hope you and your ninjas find this experience enrichening" replied the Mizukage motioning one of his ninjas to lead them around the village, he saw from the corner of his sight a blond young ninja performing some handseals before the flying machines disappeared in a cloud of smoke, probably being sealed and stored for the return trip.

The Konoha ninja gathered and walked to a large room where the Mizukage explained them some rules to follow during their time in the Mist village, he assured them no one would attack or harm them if they followed that code of conduct, Naruto raised a hand to ask if he could take samples of the water and herbs found in the village, the Kage thought for a moment and then allowed him to take anything he found in open places but he could not enter any training grounds except for the one assigned to his village or administrative places for the village, the blond nodded and thanked him for that chance.

Naruto saw the Hokage sweat a little when he raised his hand but in the end he got calm, Karin had a weird facial expression he should probably talk to her when they found a safe place to do it and Sasuke seemed to have a defiant expression on his face, clearly the Mizukage was a young ninja probably around his early twenties so to him it was kind of a challenge, a non-Uchiha had achieved great power at a young age, he even wondered if his brother would be able of defeating this man.

After that meeting the leaf ninjas were led to their hotel, they would have the whole building for them, it had four floors but only two rooms on each floor although they were large enough for four people each, for security and privacy reasons they would not have any of the usual staff but they had everything they needed to stay for a week, before going inside Naruto asked Hinata to help them scan the place around while Karin went with them, combining the blood limits of the two girls they were able to secure the place, there were some hidden microphones but Sarutobi and the ANBU felt that was the simplest way of espionage and probably was part of the protocol so they took them away and distributed among the different floors and rooms, Naruto and his team would use one of the rooms in the first floor, each of the genin teams along with their teacher would one of the rooms in the second and third floor and the Hokage would use one at the top of the building with the ANBU ninjas using the other one.

Naruto used some seals and barriers to isolate the room he was using from the outside, the Hokage and the ANBU did the same while the jounin teachers felt there was no need to go that far, their trainees were only genin and probably would not have to discuss or show something classified.

"I saw you upset at the meeting, what's going on?" asked Naruto very concerned by Karin, after the probationary period she was a very strong-willed woman with self-confidence but now she seemed to be trying to hide in the ground, she acted as if she was there against her will.

Shiho was surprised because she did believe something was off but didn't pay enough attention to her partner in the lab to pick her emotional state although now that Naruto mentioned it she seemed to be trying very hard to say something "It's okay Karin, we're here to help you" assured her patting her in the back.

Karin was feeling scared she did remember feeling like that many months ago but she hoped it could be buried in her past but it seemed it had come back to claim her, she felt Naruto's chakra and the concern and understanding it radiated allowed her to speak despite her fear "This might be hard to believe but this place is very dangerous…I felt Orochimaru-sam….Orochimaru's chakra here in the village, he was there when we landed" informed Karin trembling, Naruto could see she still feared the man and probably believed he would take her back to that hole where Naruto and the other leaf ninjas had found her "There is more…the Mizukage…his chakra is all wrong, it's turbulent and warped…he's a Jinchuuriki but he has a third chakra inside him…it shouldn't be possible but I think he is being under an illusion" explained the girl "there is a man with a sinister chakra, it radiates a similar vibe to Orochimaru'…he was there at the meeting and his chakra is all over the Mizukage" finished Karin with her head between her knees.

Naruto gave her a hug and told her he would protect her from Orochimaru, he would find a way to make things work well in the end, he just needed to have her trust and some time to think, and for whatever reason she believed in him, she clung to him with all her soul because the alternative was her doom.

At moments like this Shiho felt like the third wheel in a relationship but despite that, she still believed moving to this new department had been a good decision, she was trapped inside a building with few people to interact and a very boring job, yes it was useful to the village but god it was boring to translate some papers between different people, sometimes they got a message from another village and it turned to be an interesting puzzle but those very rare, now she was in another country, they were going to see ninjas from all over the world fighting and showing their special moves and even Naruto got them authorization to collect samples from different places they had access to…Naruto seemed like a simple person but he was very charismatic, despite not wanting to be a ninja he was a very good one and she could easily see herself following him.

The blond Uzumaki could not get any sleep that night, he stood at the top of the building reserved for them watching the sky and wondering how he was going to deal with the two potential threats he saw close to them, one was clearly Orochimaru, the snake sanin had sworn vengeance on the leaf village and would probably not take well the fact someone rescued one of his top researchers, he knew the man was a frigging genius and a powerful ninja he could not match right now, he was probably on the same level as the village's leaders, the Kages, so he needed to device some sort of bailout plan in case he or Karin faced him. Then there was the matter of the Mizukage, if someone was powerful enough to control the Mizukage and cast an illusion on a ninja who supposedly is immune to them then that person must be quite good at the art, finding this ninja was easy with Karin's help but a direct confrontation wasn't a good approach because he didn't know a thing from this man and he could clearly be overwhelmed in a fight against someone that skilled, but if he found a way to release the Mizukage from his control the man would probably fight him for payback, he didn't know how long had this been happening…

In moments like this the blond realized why the Hokage smoked and some other ninjas had some weird hobbies, he needed something for his mind to wander and stop thinking so hard about the problem at hand…at least for a couple of hours.

At the next day Karin and Shiho were awaiting for Naruto to wake up and have breakfast but said Uzumaki didn't appeared that morning, Kakashi asked them if something was wrong with the Jinchuuriki but they didn't know anything so the Hokage just thought he had been working at something and instructed the jounin masters to guide their students into the places where they would get all the information required to the exams, they would start the next day and due to their current political situation this round of the chunin exams wouldn't be just like most were, they didn't invite other merchant and feudal lords because they couldn't guarantee their security, their main goal was to put a show for the other villages so see their ninjas were as deadly as always, even with the current civil war ongoing.

Kakashi suspected the mist would play a main role in the tests because it was one of the main advantages the Kiri ninjas had in their home, but he rationalized all ninjas should have some plan to deal with that kind of set up, fighting with reduced visibility wasn't something so rare and any ninja who believed he was something should have at least a contingency measure for that.

He led his students around the village, he hadn't been around this place in a long, long time, it sure brought back many memories he would preferred were kept deep inside his past but there was nothing he could do, thanks to these ninjas he lost his final teammate but they were at war so he couldn't really blame them, it was one of the things about war, people would do anything to get an edge against their enemies.

The copy ninja thought about the hardships the people from this village were enduring, all around the world people knew about the tyrannical rule of the Mizukage Yagura, who had a crusade against people with blood limits accusing them of all the deaths and destruction caused by ninjas in the world, he just like most of the world knew it was absurd to think like that, people didn't need a blood limit to kill each other, but he had no options here.

He wondered what could be the resistance doing in these moments, having so many foreign people in the village was something unusual, so the security was tight, Yagura had called most of his ninjas to protect the village during the week of the exams to maintain the order, by next days all the other leaders would arrive and the five kage would be present at the same place for the first time in a long time since the last war. In his mind there were two possible options for the rebel group, they could either try to put a show during the last stage of the exams trying to gain favors from the other leaders or they could try to attack somewhere else, a further location like a hidden base or a prison in order to capitalize the current distribution of the Mist's ninjas.

On that afternoon Karin and Shino went to collect water samples for the department, the blond had awakened around midday saying he was fine but he was deep in thought about their situation regarding Orochimaru and the Mizukage and he had some ideas but he needed to connect them in a whole plan with some emergency measures in case something went wrong, the red haired Uzumaki proposed a meeting with the resistance to get their support in the fight but the blond denied this path…long time ago he had learnt to don't trust other people so easily, he could rely on his close people like the Hokage, Kakashi or Jiraiya hell he could say even Karin had somehow became a close person to him, like a distant cousin he liked to hang out with but he didn't trust other people when his safety was at risk "We found all about this mess on ourselves and it's going to be just ourselves who solve all this" stated the blond before asking them to collect some water samples for future researching.

The blond had an idea to approach the Mizukage and disrupt his chakra to break the illusion on him but there was a risk the man who casted the technique could retaliate against him and that didn't even consider Orochimaru in the equation…man being a ninja sure was hard, you had to think many steps ahead in order to minimize the potential negative outcomes of your actions.

….

..

At the next morning the genin were assembled in a port, they took boats individually and the proctors took care to split all the teams, they were transported to a medium sized island but the surprise came when each boat arrived at a different place, managing to isolate all ninjas from their teammates and the person in charge of the boat informed their exams had already started, their goal was to reunite with the rest of their teammates and reach one of the landing spots, there were currently fifty of them for the one hundred and fifty ninjas taking the exams, crossing he island took around six to eight hours with good visibility and going around it took approximately a whole day, again with full vision, but they would have to navigate through a place filled with a thick mist laced with the proctors' chakra. And this task had to be completed within twenty-four hours, each of them received a water bottle and a small ration bar that should keep them with enough energy to fulfill the test and they were informed no fighting was allowed during this stage, it was a test of teamwork and navigation in foreign territory, sometimes you had to cross a country not allied to yours and if you went attacking people you could cause an international incident, so they were recreating a situation like that.

Some ninjas with bloodlines like Sasuke, Neji and Hinata turned their eyes one to be filled with frustration because the mist had too much chakra they could not see a thing, Shino and Kiba had some limitations but their abilities worked more or less fine.

Other people were using their unique skills to find their teammates quickly, Gaara for example used his sand to float above all the mist and watch them from the sky, Temari imagined he would do so and decided to send wind Justus at the air to signal her position. The sound ninjas used sonic waves below the human hearing range to signal their position and movements between them.

But by far the best equipped to sort this thing were the locals, the mist ninjas were used to move around this cover and some of them relied on their hearing, others on enhanced sensory skills and some even got some ability to connect with the mist's chakra and get a feeling about the people within it plus they had years of training and most had some protocols, in case you get disbanded take some specific cardinal point or do this…they were trained since their days at the academy to survive and kill in scenarios like these.

The jounin were monitoring the whole thing from the mainland thanks to the work of the sensor ninjas who were using the mist to detect all the participants of the exam and projected a hologram that showed the status of the genin.

That day before the beginning of the exams had arrived the Kazekage who greeted politely the Hokage and the Mizukage, the other two would arrive the day before the final stage but people were already talking about the first meeting the five kages would have since the last war.

They weren't the only leaders there but in the presence of one of the five Kages the other leaders from minor villages could not use that title, because the Kage was the shadow that protected one of the five large nations so they were just called Chief or Head ninja but were treated almost equally as the rest of the jounin. Currently the leaders of the Sound and Waterfall villages were present.

….

.

All four teams from the leaf village passed to the second stage of the chunin exams, they were returned to the mainland and had a day to recover before the second stage, the leaf genin were congratulated by their teachers and the Hokage, they even had some special dinner to wish them good luck and allow them to relax before the second stage that surely would involve combat.

Many tried asking their teachers about the next stage but the jounin did not have any information, it was something only the Mizukage and the proctors knew but they told the kids to trust in their abilities and rely on their teammates for support, a team was always stronger than an individual.

The next stage of the exams started just like the first one, they were carried to the same island in groups of three but just like last time they were separated from their teammates, but this time each of them was given a pin with a number, in total twenty eight teams passed the first part of the exams so the numbers were distributed randomly between one and twenty eight, there were three copies of each number and each ninja had to reach one of the landing spots with two pins of the same number in order to advance to the next stage, this was an individual test so their actions and performance would not affect their teammates but it was up to them if they wanted to meet with their teams or the other ninjas from the same village.

This time they would be given three days, seventy-two hours to finish that task so the genin began exploring the island again to try of finding their target between the thick mist.

Shikamaru got into the mist with caution, the other two genin who shared the boat with him were from the Mist and Cloud village respectively, they didn't have the same number as him but that wasn't a guarantee of safety because they could attack him to take his pin in case a ninja of their village needed it, at least that was something he wanted to do as soon as he found another genin from the leaf to have as a partner. Soon he found Shino who agreed with his logic after hearing his explanation so the two of them teamed up and ambushed many ninjas from other villages, they tried to avoid the ones that according to Shino's bugs were too dangerous, but the rest were open game, so far, they had taken five pins including the one Shino needed.

Sasuke was cursing this stupid mist, he tried fighting a ninja from the cloud village who carried a sword and seemed strong but when he tried to surprise him with a fireball it was severely powered down by the surrounding mist, his Sharingan had been able to give him an edge and let him defeat the Kumo ninja in a blade fight where he used a kunai but it was a tight match and he even got some cuts fighting a ninja who wasn't even his designated target.

Sakura found herself being taken down by a ninja from the cloud village, she had blond hair and was very skilled with her sword, the fangirl had nothing to do against her superior abilities and could only thank the girl knocked her unconscious instead of killing her.

Ino knew she was very screwed, her abilities were not especially useful in an individual combat, but at least she had learnt another jutsu that gave her a chance so when she encountered two ninjas used it to make them fight between them, but a third one attacked her from behind to knock her up and stop the fight helping his teammate.

Neji found a whole team of rain ninjas but despite their bravado he was quick to dispatch the three of them, their synchronized attack with the umbrellas was good but nothing his absolute defense could not stop, he could say it was his lucky day when he found one of them had the same number as him but being Neji he stated it was fate.

Lee was having some problems with the mist, he wasn't too clever, so he just ran in a random direction until he found another ninja, so far, he had been able to defeat two people but none of them had the number he needed.

Tenten on the other hand found herself fighting one of the ninjas from the Sand village, she attacked the one wearing black clothes but when she connected with her surprised attack she felt some wood pieces restraining her and just then she realized she had fallen to a trap, then Kankuro proceeded to apply a paralyzing poison and took her pin.

Meanwhile Temari was having a field day, she found two sound ninjas and the two of them were close to mid-range fighters, so she toyed with them for a while until she got serious and used her fan to cut them until they passed out.

On the other side of the island Gaara was on a rampage, so far, he had only found a ninja from sound, two from the rock village and three from the mist and he had killed all of them, he found the required pin long ago, but mother demanded more blood and he would provide it.

Kiba teamed with Akamaru to ambush a ninja from the cloud village and one from the waterfall, the puppy would transform into Kiba and lay on the ground as if he was wounded while the real one was waiting for them to move with his piercing fang technique.

Hinata was having some troubles because her byakugan was neutralized by this thick chakra-laced mist, she was confronted by a Mist ninja carrying a weird sword and fought him but he was too fast for her, he adapted the size of his sword creating a large difference in the reach of each fighter and as Hinata wasn't fast enough she couldn't close that gap before the sword touched her so after cutting some of her tendons she was on the ground without the ability to get up.

Yakumo was experiencing even more troubles than Hinata, her illusions required some sort of link with his victim, but the mist blocked all of that, disrupting her style and allowing a sound ninja to knock her out.

In the end the fights were difficult for some of the genin participating in the exams but for the great majority the main problem was to find the right number to proceed towards the next stage so even after the three days only nine ninjas were able of competing in the final phase:

-Shikamaru Nara

-Shino Aburame

-Neji Hyuga

-Temari no Sabaku

-Gaara no Sabaku

-Samui of Kumo

-Chojuro of Kiri

-Zaku Abumi

-Akatsuchi of Iwa

When all the participants of the third phase were announced Naruto realized he knew that man from the Rock Village, he suspected he was already a Chunin level ninja, but it wouldn't be the first time one of the great nations send a more experienced ninja to the exams, because in the end what they were trying to do was put a good show, winning wasn't really that important. The leaf village had three competitors and for the moment the jounin teachers and the Hokage were quite satisfied with the performance of their subordinates.

The genin who would compete in the last stage would have a day to rest and recover their strength, fortunately no one of them was injured so all of them were able of bringing their A-game to the event.

Naruto had already formulated a plan that would probably allow him to solve the issue with the Mizukage and gave him some maneuvering room against the man who was controlling him, also he had some things in mind if Orochimaru became a factor, Karin would be an invaluable asset in his plan but he didn't want to discuss his plan with anyone else, if things went south he should be the only to take the blame.

…

..

It was starting to get dark, it was the end of the free day prior to the third and last stage of the chunin exams and the only constant in these events no matter what village hosted them, a battle tournament between all the participants.

The Hokage was smoking his pipe at the top of the building waiting for the blond Jinchuuriki who had asked him to meet in private after the genin went to sleep "What's in your mind Naruto?" asked the old Hokage when he sensed Naruto's approach.

"Tomorrow is going to be a very special day, old man…" said cryptically the blond, he didn't want to get the Hokage involved in his plan, he didn't want to drag the Leaf Village in case things went wrong.

"Naruto, you're starting to worry me…What are you going to do?" asked the Hokage looking at the blond whose sight was lost on the horizon.

"I just need for you to trust me old man" added the inventor before going back to the building, that night the Hokage would not sleep well, deep down he always feared Naruto would turn into another Orochimaru but so far, the blond had proven to be a very loyal ninja, so he should at least give him the benefit of doubt.

At the next day the event started with a great ceremony, it was the first time the five leaders of the great ninja nations were together in the same place since the last war, Yagura asked them to have a brief meeting at the end of the exams and they all agreed to it.

Sarutobi saw Oonoki, the third Tsuchikage who was even older than him but his ninjutsu allowed him to bypass his lack of physical prowess and still have better maneuverability than most ninjas did in their prime, the legendary dust style was a deadly weapon he had developed with an extreme proficiency, Rasa was the Fourth Kazekage and while he was a lot younger than the prior leader, he was an user of magnet release just like his predecessor, allowing him to use gold as a weapon, he also had a critical role in the nation's economy thanks to his powers and then was the Raikage A, he was a very muscular man, it was said he was the fastest man alive, only Minato had been able to surpass his speed but he was no longer among them.

All of them were excellent shinobi, their skills refined to their peak and their leadership allowed to get the respect of thousands of ninja operatives, they were not only deadly fighters but also had the back up of their entire nations to support them, that why they were so important in the world, their very thoughts and words had more power than other people's.

Each of them was allowed to have a single bodyguard at their back, and they were in the same file of seats, that's what Naruto was counting on to be able of pulling his plan.

The Mizukage believed in real life you didn't have the luxury to prepare knowing who's going to be your rival so the match ups for the final stage of the exams were revealed in that moment by an electronic screen that selected ninjas randomly, the first two names were:

Neji Hyuga vs Zaku Abumi

Some of the kages looked to the jounin representative of the sound village while the Hokage's sight went to his genin, Neji was a prodigy among the Hyuga clan and he had high hopes for the kid, but his pessimistic views of the world and fate could prevent him from getting a promotion.

The proctor for the exams would be none other than one of the seven swordsmen of the mist, a thin ninja who had inherited the Splash sword, a cruel man who loved to fight and take his enemies down through his explosions to not leave even a trace of them.

At the moment the fight started, Neji went quickly on the offensive, some could call that attitude careless but when you had Neji's speed and the ability to see absolutely everything your opponent did all the time, it was a high rewarded risk, Zaku tried using the modifications on his arms to shoot Neji with a blast of air but the Hyuga moved too quickly for him to aim properly so the next best option was to place both hands together and fire a wide range beam of pressurized air, unfortunately for him the Hyuga was able to read his movements and got behind the sound ninja, the prior rookie of the year knew from his position it was very easy to kill his opponent with a juuken strike to his back but he decided to toy a little with him and show more of his skills, maybe the judged would appreciate the control and restraint he exhibited and decided to go for the chakra points on both of his arms and some on his shoulders.

After the very effective counterattack, Zaku jumped away taking some distance from his foe who just looked with caution, he expected his opponent should not be able of channeling or molding chakra with his arms for a day or two so there wasn't really much he could do to harm him but it never hurt to be cautious, Zaku didn't realize this at first and used that moment as a chance to attack Neji but the technique didn't work, he looked at his hands in an action that proved to be his doom as Neji capitalized on that distraction placing a palm over his heart "Proctor, please call the match unless you want me to kill him" asked the Hyuga looking at the swordsman who looked annoyed and did as he was told, although he would have preferred some blood on the arena.

"The next match is going to be between Shino Aburame from the leaf Village and Samui from the Cloud Village" stated the proctor after the screen showed those two names.

"HA! Samui is going to trash your boy Hokage!" said the Raikage A with a strong confidence in his ninja, Samui was a very talented ninja, he had been purposely delaying her promotion to show her off in a moment like this.

"Let's see the combat Raikage-dono" replied the old Hokage who wasn't so confident but was aware Shino was a very reflexive person an even in the event he lost the match, he could be promoted to chunin.

In the arena, the proctor started the match and both genin stood right on their spots, watching carefully as the other moved or acted, Samui knew a little about the Aburame clan and their use of insects, she was confident her lightning element could fry any bug came close to her but so far she had seen none, Shino on the other hand didn't have much information about his rival, she was carrying a short sword that probably meant she was a close combat fighter but he could not be sure so soon.

The people watching the match was getting a little restless as the two fighters hadn't really moved from their positions for ten minutes, but then Samui felt something on her right leg and lowered her sight to see a couple of insects walking on her leg, for a moment she had to force herself to keep her cool and not shout but then decided to use her lightning manipulation to kill those bugs, her senses kicked in and raised her head to see Shino jumping at her with an attack, she quickly drew her sword and sliced right through his midsection but much to her surprise, her enemy turned into a swarm of insects falling onto her body so she quickly channeled more chakra and jumped backwards to put some distance between her and the leaf ninja.

After a few moments she was capable of freeing herself from the presence of Shino's insects but she lost sight of her enemy, realizing what was his strategy she took out her sword and stabbed the ground before doing some hand seals and cast a lightning technique to the ground, hearing some noise she knew her strategy had worked when she felt a small tremor and the Aburame came from the ground with some of his clothes with burns.

Shino was in the open and that last move had cost him half of his insect colony, he was clearly at disadvantage because he wasn't a good physical fighter and his style required an environment with more places to hide, he needed to make some time for his bugs to drain her chakra, but he was pretty sure she wasn't willing to give him that time.

Samui charged at Shino who moved his hand to gather more insects and make some of them come from the ground, close to his underground position, chasing the Cloud Kunoichi but she was too fast and outraced them "Aburame Style: Bug Shield" said Shino placing his hands together in front of him to block the incoming attack but in a great show of skill, the girl did a feint and attacked from his left side, bypassing the shield and piercing his torso, Samui quickly jumped back before the insects from the shield landed on her while Shino put his hand on the wound to apply pressure.

"Proctor…I would like to concede, my insects are low and this place hasn't the cover I need to stay in this fight" said the leaf ninja, earning a nod from the Hokage. This was precisely what he was thinking before, Shino had a plan and executed it well enough, unfortunately his opponent was too quick for him and the arena didn't have the trees that abounded in the Fire Country so they would probably have a different fight if the environment was different, Shino would have his recommendation.

….

..

In the stands there was a person who was grinning, this was precisely what Naruto needed. Don't mistake his intentions, he wasn't happy with Shino's loss but he needed an excuse to get closer to the Kage's boot and this was the perfect opportunity "Karin, let's move" instructed the blond to his assistant.

The blond heard some shouting when the next match was called between Gaara no Sabaku and Choujuro or the Mist, it seemed they were trying to cheer the local ninja but he quickly zoomed that out of his mind, there was a lot at risk on his hands and he couldn't afford being careless at this moment, one wrong movement and it could even ignite a war. Karin's role was critical as she was able to suppress both of their chakra signatures, allowing them to move undetected until the last guards before of the five village leaders.

Naruto wasn't a common ninja, stealth wasn't something natural to him as it was for many people so he depended on Karin to guide him avoiding detection, the blond had his hands ready to react if needed but thanks to his assistant and cousin he was capable of reaching the guards in the gate protecting the five leaders "Stop! Who're you?" said one of the hunter ninjas guarding the place.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, from the leaf and I need to speak with the Hokage regarding the wounds of the Aburame who fought in the previous match" said the blond using the opportunity Shino provided him, the guards didn't seem to sure but decided to go and ask the Hokage as he wasn't a Mist ninja and didn't even wanted to see their own leader.

..

Sarutobi was watching the match when one of the hunter ninjas cleared his voice drawing his attention, making the other leaders to also look at him "Sir, there is a ninja saying he needs to speak with you regarding the health of the leaf ninja who fought in the prior match, his name is Uzumaki Naruto" said the guard to Sarutobi while the other wondered different things.

' _Is this the brat Akatsuchi talked about?_ ' questioned himself the Tsuchikage remembering the name with some doubts

' _Could this be her son?_ ' thought A remembering the failed plot to kidnap Uzumaki Kushina

' _What could be Naruto thinking? I remember him saying he needed my trust…well here goes nothing_ ' decided finally with many doubts "If you allow it, I'd like for him to be allowed to speak with him" replied the Hokage looking at the Mizukage.

"Let him pass" replied Yagura without paying much attention, he didn't care about Leaf ninjas problems.

The same guard came to the boot followed by Naruto who walked until he was next to the Hokage and crouched a little to speak right into his ear "What are you doing Naruto?" asked in a low voice Hiruzen

Naruto just winked at him and raised his hand "Five-Pronged Seal!" said in a slightly higher voice, making all the village leader and their bodyguards to open their eyes, the blond was too close for them to react, some of them believed he might use the technique on the Hokage as he was the closest person to him so when he stood up and pointed the sealing to the Mizukage's chest everyone was surprised.

After the technique stick on the Mist's leader, there were many sudden movements because each bodyguard stood between the Uzumaki and their own leaders.

"Hokage, what is the meaning of this?" shouted A who was behind Darui, but his lightning armor was already activated, he would attack all the leaf ninjas within his reach at the slightest sign of danger.

"STOP, DON'T ATTACK!" shouted the blond raising his hands trying to put some calm to the situation and make other believe he wasn't a threat to them.

"Naruto, please explain yourself quick or this could get really complicated" asked the Hokage who didn't know what was happening, while he looked at the Mizukage with the corner of his eye, waiting for the moment he retaliated against Naruto, but he seemed strangely affected by the technique.

"The Mizukage is being controlled, we detected a dark chakra all over him, controlling his action and locking the three tails deep within his seal" stated Naruto surprising all the Mist ninjas, many of them had met Yagura before he was the Mizukage and many people said he had changed, most attributed it to the political power he now had but other were more suspicious about that.

"How can we believe you, you just came here and attacked him in front of all of us?" questioned the Kazekage who didn't really know what was happening, most of the village leaders knew there were more effective ways to kill people than applying a seal, even if said individual was a Jinchuuriki it would disrupt his connection with the inner beast, but it wouldn't block his chakra completely.

"He's saying the truth" said the Mizukage who seemed to start getting back to his senses, he looked at his hands, moving them as if he could not believe it "I've been under the control of a madman for years…and this young ninja has released me…" said in a vague voice as he felt like awakening from a deep and long slumber.

All of them were interrupted when someone clapped over them, raising their eyes to see the roof of the boot, a masked ninja was seen, but it was no hunter ninja, he had a spiral mask and a single hole with a red glow on it "Is that a Sharingan?" asked A looking at the Hokage.

"Hello Naruto, we meet again" said the masked man ignoring the Raikage's shout.

Naruto looked at him and realized it must be the man behind the control of the Mizukage, without Karin at his side he cannot be sure but it's the most logical assumption, the next question in his mind is how do they know, per the Raikage's words he seems to have a Sharingan, but if he was a member of the Uchiha clan living in the village, Karin would have already recognized his chakra signature, so he hadn't been in the village at least for the last months.

"Could you remind me how did we met?" asked the blond looking carefully at this man.

"Oh! I'm wounded…It was me who was there at your birth…I met you when you were just a minute old" replied with a sarcastic voice this masked ninja who was expecting an outburst from the blond.

"So you were the responsible for the Kyubi's attack that night" said Naruto in a loud voice surprising Sarutobi because that was a theory he hadn't discussed with Naruto but somehow the blond seemed aware of that.

"What are they talking about Hiruzen?" asked Onoki to the Hokage, he knew the old monkey from a long time and was probably the only one who would dare to call him like that outside of his own teammates.

"During the night of my birth, this man extracted the Kyubi from my mother, Uzumaki Kushina, and forced it to attack the leaf village, my father fought him wrestling control over the bijou to protect the village, he defeated it and sealed it within me" explained Naruto, placing all the information he had together, his mind was in overdrive, part of him wanted to tear him apart for robbing him of his family and his life but if this man was powerful enough for his father to believe he would need the Kyubi to defeat him, it was better to find some information about his powers and abilities.

After this revelation, there were multiple reactions in the same place, the Kages were shocked to realize this young man was the son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, two legends of the leaf, it had so many implications they could not believe how the Hokage managed to hide something so big, Sarutobi had some worry about the release of that same information, fearing it could point an even larger target on Naruto and finally the masked man clapped again "You're quite sharp Naruto, you really are your father's son…and just like him both of you are a torn on my plans" said this ninja who was confident enough to approach the Kage's boot on his own without fear.

"Die!" said the now recovered Mizukage who used the hook of his staff to attack him, but the weapon passed right through him.

"I must concede this round to you, young Naruto, but the next time I'll be the winner" said this masked ninja before disappearing in a vortex.

The disappearance of the masked man was the final straw in this act, in the arena, the fight had stopped a while ago when Naruto attacked the Mizukage, as everyone felt there was some commotion in the boot where the five village leaders were, a new presence appeared there and the moment he left, Gaara capitalized this distraction trying to kill Chojuro who cried and alerted the proctor who stopped the match, but the Sand Jinchuuriki heard no reason, he just wanted to kill and didn't obeyed, forcing more hunter ninjas come from the stands to stop him and in that moment one of the jounin jumped to the arena and the stadium received the invasion of a huge number of people, Orochimaru was commanding the rebel ninjas from the Mist who were the opposing faction to Yagura's tyrannical rule.

Fortunately for people in the Water Country, Naruto suspected the Snake Sanin could try something like this, especially when Karin informed him of the great number of ninjas surrounding the city where the final stage of the exams would be held so he did what he had already planned "Summoning Technique: Tiangou" and the moment he used the technique, darkness engulfed the whole place, stunning everyone in their positions as they could not see or even feel a thing, that darkness blocked many senses or sensory abilities, not just sight.

Using wind manipulation, he projected his voice to be heard "People from Mist, you have been victims of a cruel man who controlled and manipulated your leader, the Mizukage for years…please drop your weapons and stop shedding more of your countrymen's blood" asked the blond trying to stop the invading ninjas from fighting between themselves.

The blond could hear hundreds of mutterings among the people he was detaining with the darkness provided by his summon, until a powerful one was getting closer to him

"Uzumaki-san, could you release your technique?" asked the Mizukage in a tired voice "I need to speak to my people" added the Jinchuuriki. Naruto could feel many emotions coming from Yagura, he had been as much of a victim as the people in the Mist village, loyalist or rebels, all of them were members of the same country and because of that masked man they had lost a lot of people fighting among themselves, the Uzumaki had many doubts but decided to stay close to his fellow Jinchuuriki in case someone tried to get too smart, he was especially wary of Orochimaru's movements.

When the darkness lifted, the whole stadium was filled by the rebel ninjas who were all around the place, but in the center of the arena were Yagura and Naruto "People from Mist…people from the Water Country…my people, it may be difficult to believe but my fellow leaders can prove that to you, I was trapped all this years, almost from the start of my rule…I was not in control of my actions but I was able to see everything that happened, all the lives lost by both sides…I can't stand that anymore, I know it may be selfish and I'll not ask for your forgiveness because I'll never be able to atone for my sins but please stop the bloodshed, I'll step down and together all of you can decide how you want to go from now on" stated with a sad voice and finishing his speech he got on his knees and put his head on the ground, showing a complete submission.

* * *

Hello people, this is the longest chapter so far in this story, I hope you liked it

A person left a review in the last chapter regarding the chunin exams, but my current approach tried to be as different from cannon or other stories as possible, I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

This is the last chapter I'll publish this year as the next one will be after the new year celebration.

I sincerely hope all of you have a great time with your family and loved ones, try to use this time to be with the people you care and tell them how special they are for you or how grateful you are for having them in your life.

Happy holidays


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 New Foes**

It had been a month since the chunin exams hosted in the Mist Village and the world was in a delicate position, the Mist Village was starting a normal functioning after the Civil War that placed them against each other's throats for so long. But the stability of the five great ninja nations was at its weakest point since the end of the last war, the Mist Village was weak and leaderless, so many people feared one of its neighbors could try to conquer them.

Orochimaru, as the slippery snake he was, fled from the stadium in the middle of the commotion before Naruto or some hunter ninja was able to capture him, his plans were stopped but he lived to tell the tale much to Naruto's annoyance and Karin's fear.

Speaking of the blond Uzumaki, he disappeared once the leaf ninjas returned from the chunin exams, the people came out of the flying machine and he readied it to take off disappearing in the horizon, some people believed he attacked the Mizukage and almost instigated a war, other people, most of them in Water Country hailed him as a hero that unmasked a plot to control the country and cripple its people.

The news about the masked man were all around the world and he was starting to become some kind of myth, a boogeyman, a ninja outside of the five great ninja nations that was able to take down the fourth Hokage and rule the Mist village for years, the mayor powers in the world tried to find something about him while other people tried to reach him hoping he could lead them.

….

..

Sarutobi was returning to his office from a council meeting, he was satisfied with what he accomplished. With the news of the Masked Man the Uchiha clan was exonerated from the guilt of the Kyubi's attack and both the civilian and the higher hierarchies in the village had to reconsider their previous judgments, this gave a large breathing room to the inner relationships in the village to work in hopes of mending the relationships between the Uchiha clan and the rest of the village.

The Naruto issue was another entirely different thing, at first some people demanded he should be imprisoned by exposing the leaf village to a new war but then other voices, especially among the ninja clans and surprisingly even the new chief of police came in his defense, saying he detected and exposed a serious plot that affected the Mist Village and it could probably mark the beginning of a future alliance between the two nations. As expected Danzo and Hiashi opposed to this idea but Itachi actually supported it and suggested they send an emissary offering some sort of protection during this state of turmoil with the promise of a future alliance, Sarutobi smiled at the presence of another pacifist man, it seemed there was hope for the new generation. In the end Naruto's name was cleared and he was deemed to be free of any punishment but also not accountable for any reward from the leaf village.

The Hokage had no idea where Naruto could be, he had left Shiho and Karin at the leaf village before going away and despite having Jiraiya follow his trail, the Uzumaki was nowhere to be found. The third Hokage also wondered about Orochimaru's whereabouts, he did not miss his participation as an instigator of war and if it wasn't for Naruto's timely intervention he would have achieved whatever he was planning when he decided to join the rebel faction, he feared the snake sanin would try to target Naruto, but he believed in the blond, he may not be at his same level yet, but his keen mind and resourceful arsenal could even give Orochimaru a lot of trouble.

One the brighter side, despite the interruption orchestrated between Naruto and Orochimaru, the first two matches of the chunin exams had place and he was able of promoting Neji Hyuga and Shino Aburame, Neji showed great skills and a clear head on his shoulders while Shino proved to be a resourceful ninja with many options that knew his own limits. The other ninjas were a little annoyed with the result of the exams but in soon they would have another chance to prove themselves.

….

..

In a far and wet place

"Was it wise to reveal yourself so soon?" asked a figure masked by darkness

"It doesn't matter, let them fear this bogeyman while the Akatsuki runs wild in the shadows" replied the second figure that had a scarlet glow on his face.

"At least both, Orochimaru and you kept hidden your allegiances to the Akatsuki" added the first figure to the two ninjas behind the masked man.

"I want to volunteer myself to retrieve the nine tails…" said the snake sanin with a smirk on his face

….

..

Naruto was currently training in the Yangtze River, he decided to lay low for a while in case the winds of war blew too strong, he didn't want to start a conflict between the ninja nations so he left the leaf village in a very public and visible way hoping to set his actions apart from his village's to the public opinion.

He had been using his time to field test his new chakra armor as he hadn't had any chance to do it against a real enemy before, so far it gave him many possibilities and one of the aspects he liked the most was the endless room for improvement it had, he could always add more weapons, more seals or improve the metal, right now it was based on the original design he saw in the Snow country, it had a helmet for the head, but the rest of the body was an armor that covered his body almost completely and had retractile wings on its back, those were manipulated with wind chakra to allow him flying (search the Steel Saint Daichi Omega, change the yellow by orange and add retractile wings). The armor was actually sealed within his wrists, so he could summon it whenever he needed, plus its barrier seals provided a thin layer of protection against chakra based attacks, it allowed him to put more force behind his strikes and the ability to fly in combination with his chains made him a pretty annoying opponent.

He had been relieving his moment with the masked man many times so far, he suspected the man had at least a Sharingan eye, meaning it didn't necessarily had to be an Uchiha although if he really controlled the Kyubi, he probably was. He was able to make himself intangible as the Mizukage's attack passed right through him without making any movement, probably that was the reason he was confident enough to face the five Kages without reserves, his technique must give him a very good defense but during his birth his father had somehow forced him to leave so he wasn't invincible, by the way the air warped around he at the moment of his disappearance it seemed he probably was using a time-space technique but as he knew very well, every technique had a weakness and he just needed time to work on some potential options.

Naruto was doing some serious ninja training there, he didn't have his tools in the mystical river that housed the Dog clan but during his resting time he usually drew some things he thought could be useful and planned possible ways to face this masked man.

One day he was meditating, relieving the moments in the presence of the masked man when he felt someone walking close to him, so opening his eyes he saw the Dog King "Hello young Naruto…you seem troubled" said the wise cleric-like dog looking at him with a curious face. The Uzumaki explained everything, he went to the events during the chunin exams, about the things he got from the talks with Kakashi and the events related to his birth, he felt like doing a puzzle and he was feeling close to finishing it "I may have something useful in your endeavor" offered the Dog getting Naruto's attention, he motioned the Uzumaki to follow him towards the mountains "There is a member of our clan that is said to be able of seeing what others can't and is able to burn something that's not really there…he may help you against this mysterious masked man" pointed finally "He's waiting over there, he'll not be a danger to you but it's his call allowing you to call him or not, he may hurt you during his test" explained to the blond who may not be completely ready in his opinion but the need might make him mature and find a way to succeed.

Naruto wandered for half an hour between the mountains at the ground level, he was starting to feel this was a waste of time when he felt a presence right next to him, so he jumped away and summoned a shield he always had at the ready "Your thoughts are all over the place…your sensor skills are nonexistent but your reflexes are good…I don't know what was king thinking allowing you to take this test so soon but it's only fair that you get your chance" said before disappearing, it looked as if he dematerialized right in front of his eyes and then he spoke right next to his ear "Your mind and spirit are not here…as long as you don't use all your focus, all your senses and all your mind to keep track of me, you'll never be able of calling me" warned the dog before disappearing again.

Naruto looked around to find no traces of the dog challenging him, he put the thoughts of the masked man aside and focused on his surroundings, he felt some movement and jumped to one side before a green-ish flame passed right through his previous position, looking at the direction it came from he found no one.

The blond was a highly logical person, but this was getting annoying really quick, he didn't really have sensory skills, it probably was one of the things most ninja had that he lacked because he wasn't interested in being a ninja in the first place, but as always there must be a way to pass this test and he just needed to find it…they wouldn't set him to fail miserably like that. The next flame came without movements, so he received it directly, feeling some pain but nothing that would cause him a great danger.

This kept happening at few more times, Naruto would try his best to pay attention to his surroundings and the green flames would catch him by surprise no matter how hard he focused, after half an hour he thought about focusing on the air and wind surrounding him, trying to create some kind of dome of detection and allowed him to anticipate three attacks but the fourth was able to reach him before he took notice.

Black Shuck was a very particular dog, he had some kind of ghost-like abilities that allowed to move in a small radius while being invisible and undetectable, he practically became a ghost for a few moments but also he had a very unique skill, the Ghost Flame as the King called it, it was a green-ish flame that had the capacity to bypass shields and even hit spirits or other intangible things. Right now, he was moving around and attacking Naruto while using his special abilities because if the blond summoned him, he needed to be able of knowing his position to coordinate their attacks and movements, plus the skills required to feel him would prove to be critical at the moment he tried senjutsu in the future.

After an hour of trial and error, more on the error side, Naruto was feeling a lot of pain, the flames weren't burning him, but they left a lingering pain on the places reached by them, but remarkably he still had a cool head trying to decipher this whole test. At first he tried to feel the dog's movement and it proved to be successful only for a few tries, then he tried to detect him feeling the wind and it also was successful a few times, which meant the dog had the ability to mask those things voluntarily and was gradually testing him harder, in a moment when he was on the ground after receiving an attack he realized there was a small voice on his mind telling him whenever an attack would came in his direction but he hadn't payed much attention, then he tried to focus inwards to listen more clearly but it didn't work so then he tried focusing on his environment, the easiest way he had to do it was through the wind but he required more than that, trying to feel the different energies around, trying to feel the life around…then! And in that moment he jumped to avoid a new green flame, when another came in his direction he tried using a wind technique to blow it away but he realized it wasn't possible, the flame passed right through his attack and at that point he realized, the Dog King set him to this challenge hoping to give him some tools to face the masked man, to stop picturing him as this boogeyman and look at him for what he really was, a skilled ninja with a secret technique he had to crack.

After that failed attempt he regained his focus on the environment and avoided the next flame and the one that came after that, for a moment the flames stopped coming in his direction but to his surprise ten images of Shuck were surrounding him "find me" said all of them at unison before shooting a new flame, the blond was able to avoid all ten of them, but he couldn't reach the dog because quickly the ten of them fired again, and again but with each shoot the blond moved a little closer, it was certainly harder to focus on his surroundings so deep when he was under heavy attacks but when he managed it, he never got hit again and after a few more steps, he reached one of the copies of the black ghost-dog and petted him on the head, making all other nine disappear "Congratulations Naruto…I didn't think you would be able of passing this test but you were capable of raising above the challenge in front of you, from this moment you can count on me as your ally" stated the dog before licking Naruto's face and some of the places hit with the fire to ease the pain he was feeling.

Once the test had ended both of them came to the main place of the Yangtze River to find the dog king waiting for them with a smile, he congratulated Naruto for his success and thanked Shuck for giving him a chance "Naruto, as much as we like having you here…I think it's time you go back to your home" said the wise dog getting an affirmative nod from the blond who petted Shuck again and thanked the dog king before using the portal to reach his world.

….

..

The blond appeared at the outskirts of Konoha, near to a small cave with a river that was secretly connected with the Yangtze River, to his surprise Kakashi appeared five minutes after he arrived "It's good to see you Naruto" greeted him the copy ninja.

"How are things going?" asked the blond with real curiosity.

Kakashi then proceeded to explain what he knew about the outcomes of the chunin exams, the situation with Kiri and the possible alliances, Naruto was happy to be back and soon smiled when Karin came to see him, she felt his chakra the moment of his arrival and left her job to greet him, which put a smile on his face, interceding for her resulted to be an incredible good decision.

The three of them returned to the village walking, talking and laughing like a weird and dysfunctional family but very happy to be together.

At the next day Naruto reported himself with the Hokage who told him he was happy to see him and then proceeded to explain what had been talked during the last meetings, the blond returned to his job and things went back to normal.

The Uzumaki had a new project and it had the support of the Hokage, Sarutobi was aware the Wind feudal lord send most of the domestic missions request to his country and sometimes he declined saying he didn't have enough manpower just to not take those jobs from the Kazekage but if this resulted it could mean a way for the people from Sand Village to get easier access to trade and products, he wanted to install a funicular that had hanging wagons, it would be like a small train held by two tight wires made from a special metal Naruto forged, it was malleable enough to turn into a wire and resistant enough to withstand the wind and traction it would be exposed to.

Its main purpose was to set an easier trade system between the two allied nations solving one of Sand's problems, being the water supply the other.

The Hokage authorized a mission for the blond to go with Karin and another ninja team, he encouraged for Naruto to pick one with people his age, so he chose Kiba, Hinata and Shino with the last being the team leader as a new appointed Chunin. Later that same day the group of five ninjas left the leaf village, Naruto was the client this time as the one with the diplomatic scrolls and the blueprints for the cable railway that would significantly improve the communications between the two countries, the only people who knew about the reasons behind the mission were the Hokage, Naruto and Karin so facing enemies was unexpected but you never could be so sure about anything, especially after making himself known to the world during the last chunin exams.

Their journey to the Sand Village was short and uneventful, Kiba tried to flirt with Karin at first but when the redhaired girl threatened him, the Inuzuka decided to back off, the rest of the time was spent with interesting talks about the work the two Uzumaki did on the department led by Naruto and what projects he had for the future, Naruto was anxious for cracking what he called the super metals, finding the right compositions to create a material that was completely immune to external energies such as chakra and another that was the complete opposite, one that mixed to a molecular level and conduced chakra with more efficiency than current chakra metals. At first Kiba tried to sound cool saying he didn't know what was so special about those metals but ignoring his attitude the inventor went on his rant "Imagine a building that you can't walk on it…or that completely repels chakra attacks, imagine using that on our village walls…it's an incredible upgrade in structural security, imagine a building the Byakugan can't see the inside" after this last statement they were surprised, while possible to apply some seals to interfere with the white eye from the Hyuga Clan, making a metal that was just immune to it was something else entirely.

Two days later the ninjas from the leaf arrived at the Sand Village, Naruto presented the papers at the village gates and the guards allowed them entering the city, instructing him where to go in order to ask for an audience with the Kazekage, the lead ninjas walked through the village, some people whispered about them while others just looked in awe at the blond, he was getting famous to the world as the man who stopped the rebellion in the Mist Village.

Karin got a little closer to Naruto the moment she felt Gaara's chakra, it scared her because the bijou's chakra was embedded with malice and some primal feeling she could not separate from the red head, unlike Naruto who clearly had a network apart from the tailed best he contained.

They were walking when Naruto and Karin stopped suddenly, so the rest followed them "What brings leaf losers to our village?" asked a young and blonde woman carrying a large fan.

"We're on a diplomatic mission and need to set an audience with your father" informed Naruto keeping a serious and professional voice.

Seeing the blond didn't fell for her provoking she decided to drop it "In that case, I'll guide you" agreed the wind user who caught Naruto peeking at her fan "What are you looking at?" asked her curious.

"I'm a fellow wind user and your fan seems very interesting" explained the blond, for the clan genin admitting your elemental affinity to a foreign ninja was something wrong but the blond didn't get the ninja raising they did, plus his abilities were very unconventional so knowing that didn't gave other people an edge over him. Despite Temari not handing her fan to Naruto as he was a ninja from another village, she opened and showed some of its features to the blond, who was looking carefully at the weapon, thinking about ways to reverse-engineer it.

After a while they arrived to the office, Temari introduced Naruto to his father's secretary and he gave her the official scrolls to set an appointment with the village leader, the older woman informed Naruto that as an allied village this audiences usually took around two days so he could stay in an hotel with the rest of his team in the meanwhile, the Uzumaki thanked her and led the other leaf ninjas to the nearest hotel.

Once in the hotel Kiba expressed how bored he was and immediately he got glares of disapproval from his teammates, Naruto just looked at him and said "Don't get into trouble or I'll make the Hokage put a note on your expedient" stated the blond tired of the mouthy Inuzuka and his attitude, the Jinchuuriki rented three rooms, one for Kiba and Shino, the other for Karin and Hinata and the last for himself.

A couple of hours later he was going to leave the hotel when he saw Shino waiting at the door "We're in charge of your security after all" said the Aburame explaining what he was doing there.

"In that case I suggest you come with me" replied Naruto getting an affirmative motion with the head, they went into public places, but the blond took many samples of the village's sand, that village was famous for their minerals and it could be a source of new metals for his research. Shino saw Naruto looking around and collecting his samples and couldn't help but admire his methodical work, he clearly was a scientist, a fellow logical thinker that tried to decompose the world to understand it.

The next day a team of masked ninjas informed Naruto the Kazekage was ready to receive him, the blond went to his office with the team protecting him, they stayed at the reception while the inventor went to the actual office

"My secretary showed me an offer from the Hokage, but I'd like for you to explain it" said the Kazekage as an introduction

"Well, Kazekage-sama as you saw, what we're trying to create is a transportation method primarily for civilians although it can also be used by ninjas, through a cableway we could establish a way for more merchants to bring their good here, lowering prices and strengthening our relationships" explained Naruto pointing at different part of the blueprints, that showed how would the things work.

"What energy need this to work?" asked the Kazekage who had tried some system to gather water in the past, but they were not viable in the long term due to the energy requirements.

"As you probably know I'm the inventor of the Leaf's flying machines and they work with a chakra based engine, I'm confident I can assemble a system that allows one or two ninjas to move the whole things without much effort" replied the blond with a smirk

"If anyone else would have brought this to me I'd have said it's not possible but with your record I believe this can be done and the increase in trade would greatly benefit us so I'll go along with this and give you the authorization and resources you are asking" replied the Kazekage shaking Naruto's hand. In the scroll the Hokage asked for the Kazekage to build the wagons and the metal towers while the leaf through Naruto would supply the cable and the engines.

Naruto had already designed an engine for this, it was something he wanted to prove before he materialized his main project in the land of fire, the engine had a generator attached and it required two people to supply a small amount of chakra to make a metal piece to spin but the more energy it made, the faster the spin which in turn produces more energy, he supposed making the generator work for an hour would cost around the same amount of chakra than an A-ranked ninjutsu but this would provide energy for three to five hours, allowing people enough rest before using his chakra again.

Happy with the positive response from the Sand's village leader, the blond greeted the ninja team in charge of his security, when he told them about his success they congratulated him, the Uzumaki invited all of them for lunch before going back to the leaf, he would need to work on the engine he had in mind but as usual he was confident in his ability to make one of his blueprints into reality.

The five ninjas and the dog had an afternoon on fun and food before going back to the leaf, they would wait until the sun was about to set to travel, the scorching sun in the desert could be quite problematic. For a moment Naruto had a slight hope Temari would come to say goodbye but quickly left those thoughts on the back of his mind, they were getting close to the outer walls when Karin grabbed his sleeve, he got his ear close to her "I can feel the chakra of Orochimaru's bodyguards, the Sound Five" informed Karin provoking a chuckle from the blond

' _What kind of stupid name is that? It sound like a teenager music band'_ wondered the blond trying to keep his composure "Don't worry I can deal with them" assured the blond with a smile

"But you don't understand, Kimimaro is with them, he's an unbeatable melee fighter!" said the redhead raising her voice, Kiba was able to hear her and Shino felt something off but only raised his eyebrow.

"Don't worry, there is no such a thing as an unbeatable fighter, trust me on this" said Naruto taking the lead of the group, Kiba and Shino exchanged looks but the Aburame did nothing trusting Naruto's judgement, the blond Uzumaki had proved to be a rational and logical thinker after all.

The leaf ninjas started to run at mid speed from the village only to stop after an hour "Come out, all of us know you're there" said Naruto in a commanding voice making five silhouettes materialize around them.

"You have a lot of nerve to be a leaf's trash" replied a white-haired man he supposed was Kimimaro, Naruto already knew many things about Sound's most prominent ninjas from Karin who explained what she knew about Orochimaru's men, he was aware all of them had curse marks and that was precisely the reason he was confident on his chances.

Naruto created three copes of himself, while the original turned to the rest of ninjas "Aburame-san please keep the others safe, I'm more than capable of facing these freaks" ordered the blond not as the friendly inventor he usually was but as a superior officer so the Aburame had no more option than comply. Turning back to the fight the Jinchuuriki saw one of his clones shooting a fireball at Kimimaro while the others pushed the rest with their chains, he used that window to grab five senbon needles and threw them with great accuracy, he had practiced a lot with his wrist movement for exactly this reason.

All the needles reached its intended target, but Kimimaro's did nothing as he had a hard bone layer right under his skin, but for the other four, the needles caused precisely the effect Naruto wanted, they fell to the ground, grabbing their throats and began convulsing, it wasn't a pretty sight so Naruto quickly used his copies to get close to them "Uzumaki secret sealing style: Iron Maiden!" and then each of the sound four was trapped in a metal coffin that was surrounded by many chains before some characters appeared on the surface and the coffins vanished in a cloud of smoke "And that's how you dispose of good for nothing freaks" said Naruto with a mocking gesture towards Kimimaro was if he was dusting his hands.

The Kaguya was told this guy was dangerous because his skills and abilities were unknown, he had underestimated him as he did with most leaf ninjas, despite being on the winner side of all the previous wars, people used to believe leaf ninjas were stupid sentimental fools incapable of showing strength…Kimimaro was no exception and now he paid the price, all his team had been captured or killed "I'll take you seriously now" stated the Kaguya making some bones appear on his hands and torso.

"I'll do the same!" replied Naruto activating a seal on his wrist before a white cloud surrounded him.

Kimimaro was waiting until a fast-moving flame came to his direction and he was forced to move, the next time he saw Naruto he was covered by an orange armor "Do you really think some armor is going to be enough to protect you?" asked the Kaguya "Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets" shouted pointing his fingers to Naruto before hardened bones were fired from his fingertips but Naruto just stood there without moving, the projectiles were blocked before even touching the metal plates, they had seals that blocked chakra based attacks and others that absorbed kinetic energy, all of that had some limits and that was precisely some of the things he wanted to test.

Naruto dashed forward trying to trap Kimimaro with his chains but the Kaguya was way faster than the blond and avoided his attack without much trouble, the problem came when he realized this difference and moved forward closing the distance between him and Naruto "Dance of the Camelia" said in movement, creating a short sword with a bone from his forearm, the blond thought about taking the hit but decided against it, he didn't know for certain how much piercing power that could have, the blond was aware about his lack of speed and he wanted to lure people into his close range, most of his attacks were more effective at this range.

When the last user of the Shikotsumyaku got close to the blond, he used one of hands to release a portable shield, holding it with a chain, he wanted to capture Kimimaro's sword and hold him but the Kaguya saw his plan coming and changed his tactic, getting even closer to the blond and using another tactic "Dance of the Willow" and many bones protruded from his body, then he started to spin, pushing Naruto this way and forcing him to jump away to safety.

Naruto realized why Karin and probably most people in Sound was afraid of this guy, he was incredible fast and his attacks delivered quite a punch, but he was not a brawler, he was a thinker and as a thinker he would analyze his style to find an opening, Kimimaro charged again, he still had that short forearm-sword but the other bones still threatened him so going into close combat with him was probably a terrible idea "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" Naruto fired a very strong wind technique to push Kimimaro away but the Kaguya used his bones to stick to the ground, neutering Naruto's move "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough" said the blond again, Kimimaro as well as the other leaf ninjas wondered why he did the same move that didn't work last time but this time the Kaguya saw something with his peripheral vision "Fire Style: Great Fireball" said Naruto's doppelgangers from both sides of him, forming a really powerful collaboration attack.

Karin and the rest of ninjas protecting Naruto saw in awe the destruction his technique could cause, the Uzumaki girl knew pulling off a collaboration technique was hard because the chakras needed to be compatible and properly synched but clearly using your own copies allowed that.

When the wind cleared the smoke, Naruto saw Kimimaro turned into a dark skinned monster, he had many bones coming from different parts of his body and looked more like a dinosaur than a person, but he could see that hit had costed his foe a lot of chakra, this transformation healed his wounds but there was a chakra cost to that "Now it's over…" muttered the Kaguya very angry, the skills he had honed to the service of his master Orochimaru were flawless, the sanin himself had praised him and assessed him to be a superb physical fighter so there was no reason for this blond trash to force him to this extent.

Karin was quite shocked because before that move, Naruto seemed to be holding his ground pretty well against the Kaguya, but she had never seen him use the level two of the cursed seal and the increase in his chakra was substantial, he would be a completely different adversary now…but she would trust Naruto, if he used the same energy when he fought Juugo he could overpower him.

Naruto stood on his position assessing his adversary, he had theorized with Karin about the power increase associated with the cursed seal and it was between two and ten times, if Kimimaro was so feared as she said he would probably be close to ten times so he needed to be very careful, when the Kaguya moved the first time Naruto tried using his shield but the monster-like ninja just pushed that and kept moving, tackling Naruto who felt as if he was hit by a giant rock, his armor protected him from the blunt force but he didn't believe it could take another of those hits, the Kaguya was about to stab him with the short sword but he quickly used his chains to move at the position of one of his copies.

The Uzumaki used his own chakra to level the field, Karin was surprised because he didn't usually flared his chakra and this was all his, there wasn't even an ounce of the Kyubi's energy there, the problem is while this gave him a boon to his strength and ninjutsu, his speed was still inferior, Kimimaro moved forward again but this time the inventor deployed the wings and took off from the ground level, unfortunately Kimimaro reacted even more quickly and creating a chain with his spine grabbed his foot, Naruto tried to release himself flying higher but the Kaguya was too heavy in that form and used his strength and weight to bring him down, the Jinchuuriki was able to outmaneuver his enemy and creating many chains he restricted all his limbs movements.

This was a critical point for their match because it led to a test of power, Kimimaro was trying to break from the chains with brute strength alone while the Uzumaki was trying to stop him using only his chakra on the chains, Karin was impressed because she was able to feel how much chakra Naruto was using, just his own power and it was about to surpass his adversary.

The Kaguya stood there trying to force his way out of that hold for five minutes before trying another tactic, he kneeled and placed a hand on the ground, Naruto felt Kimimaro's chakra through the ground and realized his intent was not on him this time "Jump!" shouted Naruto to the other ninjas that came with him.

In that moment time seemed to stop and many things happened at once, Naruto shouted and pointed with his hand towards his fellow leaf ninjas producing five thick chains, all five ninjas plus the dog jumped after Naruto's warning and just when their feet raised from the ground, they saw white pointy pillars emerge from the ground, the problem was Naruto, as concerned as he was for his companions he did nothing to protect himself and the attack passed through his armor, breaking it and piercing his right tight.

"Uzumaki secret style: seeker flames!" said Naruto before doing one of the most complex techniques in his arsenal, he materialized his chains but made entirely out of wind chakra and then casted a fire technique to set the chains on flames, it was some sort of collaboration technique, but its main feature was the ability to control the chains movement and thus the flames with only his hands at a wide range with high speeds.

One of the main advantages was the fact Naruto could make six chains simultaneously and each of them had an individual flame that pushed Kimimaro around, the Kaguya was confident his bones could protect him from the chains, but the fire was another thing, he felt the fire jutsus this guy used were powerful plus the smoke hurt his lungs.

Naruto chased him for ten minutes but then realized Kimimaro's movement were more erratic, he was dodging at the last possible second and seemed like he waited too much, he was surrounding him with his flames in order to lay a trap for the elusive Kaguya until he coughed some blood, the Uzumaki was paying close attention during the whole fight and none of his attacks should have caused that, which meant he was already sick from the beginning. Despite the danger and threat to his life Kimimaro posed, the blond could not help but to admit the fight had been fun so far, but he needed to end it soon, so he channeled more fire chakra into his attack to raise the air temperature in the battlefield, it was getting hot even for him and he wasn't surrounded by flames, probably the Kaguya felt his lungs were in flames with each breath he took.

Suddenly Kimimaro took a weird turn and stood a couple of seconds in the same place "Dance of the Clematis: Flower" and his left arm was completely covered in bone forming a drill shaped bone before dashing towards Naruto, the blond quickly called his chains in flames to stop the bone user but he just endured the pain and burns from the first and second chain, the third one attached to his torso but he also ignored it, the fourth came from one side and he used his right arm to block it but the fifth and sixth grabbed his legs, tripping him and stopping him, then he covered him with the other four and decided to burn him until he died.

The Kaguya was proud until the end as he endured all that in silence without giving anyone the satisfaction of hearing his suffering or his begging, he just lived and died to fulfill Orochimaru's will.

Karin was speechless, she knew about Kimimaro's illness, but he still was Orochimaru's most powerful agent, a complete juggernaut on the battlefield who hadn't lost a battle since anyone could remember. Shino was also impressed but not because of the victory itself but because the way Naruto achieved it, this Kimimaro guy was clearly a powerful melee fighter, with a strong defense and an exquisite technique but the blond Uzumaki didn't try to overpower him when he could have tried that, clearly the potency of his chakra would have allowed it, Naruto fought smart and that was the key to his victory.

Naruto used the same technique he did to the sound four, the Iron Maiden to seal Kimimaro's corpse, there was no way he could have survived that ordeal, but it was still a good way to contain his body and study it later, Orochimaru's handiwork could prove useful in the future. The blond reunited with his compatriots spotting some bruises and sweat, that battle had been a fun and useful one, finally he had been able to field-test his prototype of the chakra armor and already had some ideas to improve its design.

* * *

Hello People!

I'm still among the living... I owe you all an apology, but the last week of december I received kind of an ultimatum so I had to work during all January on my Master's degree thesis or I would lose any chance to get the degree, I was able to make it in time but it required a complete focus on that task (I wrote a 130 pages book after all).

I had to read the whole story again, I have a general script with the main portions of the story but I didn't really remember what had happened and how so after all that I was able to come up with this chapter, I hope you like it because I've wanted to write this portion from a long time.

Some people asked about the chunin exams before but I don't remember having read any opinion on how you perceived the way I did it.

Please leave your comments,

See you soon! (for real)


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